Allograft or Recipient ST2 Deficiency Oppositely Affected Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy Differentially Altering Immune Cells Infiltration.

The role of IL-33/ST2 signaling in cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is not fully addressed. Here, we investigated the role of IL-33/ST2 signaling in allograft or recipient in CAV respectively using MHC-mismatch murine chronic cardiac allograft rejection model. We found that recipients ST2 deficiency significantly exacerbated allograft vascular occlusion and fibrosis, accompanied by increased F4/80 macrophages and CD3 T cells infiltration in allografts. In contrast, allografts ST2 deficiency resulted in decreased infiltration of F4/80 macrophages, CD3 T cells and CD20 B cells and thus alleviated vascular occlusion and fibrosis of allografts. These findings indicated that allografts or recipients ST2 deficiency oppositely affected cardiac allograft vasculopathy/fibrosis differentially altering immune cells infiltration, which suggest that interrupting IL-33/ST2 signaling locally or systematically after heart transplantation leads different outcome.