The suppression of inflammatory macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity and proinflammatory cytokine production by transgenic expression of HLA-E

Background: Macrophages participate in xenogenic rejection and represent a major biological obstacle to successful xenotransplantation. The signal inhibitory regulatory protein alpha (SIRP alpha) receptor was reported to be a negative regulator of macrophage phagocytic activity via interaction with CD47, its ligand. Because a majority of human macrophages express the inhibitory receptor CD94/NKG2A, which binds specifically to the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-E and contains immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibition motifs (ITIMs), the inhibitory function of HLA class I molecules, HLA-E, on macrophage-mediated cytolysis was examined. The suppressive effect against proinflammatory cytokine production by macrophages was also examined. Methods: Complementary DNA (cDNA) of HLA-E, and CD47 were prepared and transfected into swine endothelial cells (SEC). The expression of the modified genes was evaluated by flow cytometry and macrophage-mediated cytolysis was assessed using in vitro generated macrophages. Results: Transgenic expression of HLA-E significantly suppressed the macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity. HLA-E transgenic expression demonstrated a significant suppression equivalent to CD47 transgenic expression. Furthermore, transgenic HLA-E suppressed the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by inflammatory macrophages. Conclusions: These results indicate that generating transgenic HLA-E pigs might protect porcine grafts from, not only NK cytotoxicity, but also macrophage-mediated cytotoxicity. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.