Lycopene Ameliorates Transplant Arteriosclerosis in Vascular Allograft Transplantation by Regulating the NO/cGMP Pathways and Rho-Associated Kinases Expression.

Transplant arteriosclerosis is considered one of the major factors affecting the survival time of grafts after organ transplantation. In this study, we proposed a hypothesis of whether lycopene can protect grafted vessels through regulating key proteins expression involved in arteriosclerosis. Allogeneic aortic transplantation was performed using Brow-Norway rats as donors and Lewis rats as recipients. After transplantation, the recipients were divided into two groups: the allograft group and the lycopene group. Negative control rats (isograft group) were also established. Histopathological staining was performed to observe the pathological changes, and the expression levels of Ki-67, caspase-3, Rho-associated kinases, intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM-1), and eNOS were assessed. Western blotting analysis and real-time PCR were also performed for quantitative analysis. The histopathological staining showed that vascular stenosis and intimal thickening were not evident after lycopene treatment. The Ki-67, ROCK1, ROCK2, and ICAM-1 expression levels were significantly decreased. However, eNOS expression in grafted arteries and plasma cGMP concentration were increased after lycopene treatment. Lycopene could alleviate vascular arteriosclerosis in allograft transplantation via downregulating Rho-associated kinases and regulating key factor expression through the NO/cGMP pathways, which may provide a potentially effective method for transplant arteriosclerosis in clinical organ transplantation.