Combination of Donor-Specific Blood Transfusion With Anti-CD28 Antibody Synergizes to Prolong Graft Survival in Rat Liver Transplantation

Donor-specific blood transfusion (DST) has been shown to effectively induce tolerance to certain allografts. In addition, it is well known that blockade of costimulatory signals reduces the ability of T cells to respond to alloantigens, prolonging allograft survival in some transplant models. We assessed the effects of single or multiple DSTs in the absence or presence of anti-CD28 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) on graft function and host survival in rat liver transplantation (LTx). Fully MHC-mismatched adult male Dark Agouti (DA) and Lewis (LEW) rats were used as donors and recipients, respectively. Heparinized DA blood was administered to naïve LEW rats 7 days before LTx [DST(−7d)], 14 and 7 days before LTx [DST(1×2)], twice a week for 2 weeks prior to LTx [DST(2×2)] and once a week for 4 weeks prior to LTx [DST(1×4)]. For some experiments, two different monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to rat CD28 (JJ316 and JJ319) were administered in combination with some DST treatments. We found that DST administration induced a time- and dose-dependent increase in host survival. Treatment of LEW rats with JJ316 or JJ319 mAb alone failed to prolong graft survival over untreated rats; however, the combination of DST(1×2) with JJ316 or JJ319 mAb induced indefinite survival at 100 days following surgery. We found that this protective effect was associated with increased numbers of splenic CD4 +CD45RC − but not CD4 +CD25 +foxp3 + T-cells in long-term survivors. Our data suggest that the combination of suboptimal DST with CD28 mAb induces donor-specific tolerance that correlates with enhanced numbers of regulatory T-cells.