Background

Hepatitis C (HCV) recurrence following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is universal, often with accelerated allograft fibrosis. Donor liver steatosis is frequently encountered and often associated with poor early post-operative outcome. The study’s aim was to test the hypothesis that allograft steatosis alters immune responses to HCV and self-antigens promoting allograft fibrosis.

Methods

Forty-eight HCV OLT recipients (OLTr) were enrolled and classified based on amount of allograft macrovesicular steatosis at time of OLT. Group 1-No Steatosis (0–5% steatosis, n=21), Group 2 – Mild (5–35% - n=16), Group 3 – moderate (>35%, n=11). Cells secreting IL-17, IL-10, IFN-γ in response to HCV antigens were enumerated by ELISpot. Serum cytokines were measured by Luminex, antibodies (Abs) to Collagen (Col) I, II, III, IV, V by ELISA.

Results

OLTr of moderate steatotic grafts had the highest incidence of advanced fibrosis in protocol one-year post-OLT biopsy (10.8% vs. 15.8% vs. 36.6%, r = 0.157, p<0.05). OLTr from Groups 2 and 3 had increased HCV specific IL-17 (p<0.05) and IL-10 (p<0.05) with reduced IFN-γ (p<0.05) secreting cells when compared to group 1. This was associated with increase in serum IL-17, IL-10, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-5 and decreased IFN-γ. In addition, there was development of Abs to Col I, II, III and V in OLTr with increased steatosis (p<0.05).

Conclusion

The results demonstrate that allograft steatosis influences post-OLT HCV specific immune responses leading to a IL-17 T-helper response and activation of humoral immune responses to liver associated self antigens which may contribute to allograft fibrosis and poor outcome.

Hepatic steatosis continues to present a major challenge in liver transplantation. These organs have been shown to have an increased susceptibility to cold ischemia and reperfusion (CIR) injury compared to otherwise comparable lean livers; the mechanisms governing this increased susceptibility to CIR injury are not fully understood. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is an important link between hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome. In this study, we investigated ER stress signaling and blockade in the mediation of CIR injury in severely steatotic rodent allografts. Steatotic allografts from genetically leptin-resistant rodents had increased ER stress responses and increased markers of hepatocellular injury following liver transplantation into strain-matched lean recipients. ER stress response components were decreased by the chemical chaperone, TUDCA, resulting in improvement of the allograft injury. TUDCA treatment decreased NF-κB activation, and the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-1β. However, the predominant response was decreased expression of the ER stress cell death mediator, CHOP. Further, activation of the inflammation-associated caspase 11 was decreased linking ER Stress/CHOP to pro-inflammatory cytokine production following steatotic liver transplantation. These data confirm ER stress in steatotic allografts, and implicate this as a mediating mechanism of inflammation and hepatocyte death in the steatotic liver allograft.

Liver disease due to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important health problem worldwide. HCV induced changes in microRNAs (miRNA) are shown to mediate inflammation leading to liver fibrosis. Gene expression analyses identified dysregulation of miRNA-449a in HCV patients but not in alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver diseases. By sequence analysis of the promoter for YKL40, an inflammatory marker upregulated in patients with chronic liver diseases with fibrosis, adjacent binding sites for nuclear factor of Kappa B/P65 and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (CEBPα) were identified. P65 interacted with CEBPα to co-operatively activate YKL40 expression through sequence specific DNA binding. In vitro analysis demonstrated that tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) mediated YKL40 expression is regulated by miRNA-449a and its target NOTCH1 in human hepatocytes.NOTCH1 facilitated nuclear localization of P65 in response to TNFα. Further, HCV patients demonstrated upregulation of NOTCH1 along with downregulation of miRNA-449a. Taken together it is demonstrated that miRNA-449a plays an important role in modulating expression of YKL40 through targeting the components of the NOTCH signaling pathway following HCV infection. Therefore, defining transcriptional regulatory mechanisms which control inflammatory responses and fibrosis will be important towards developing strategies to prevent hepatic fibrosis especially following HCV recurrence in liver transplant recipients.

Background

The molecular basis of the increased susceptibility of steatotic livers to warm ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury during transplantation remains undefined. Animal model for warm I/R injury was induced in obese Zucker rats. Lean Zucker rats provided controls. Two dimensional differential gel electrophoresis was performed with liver protein extracts. Protein features with significant abundance ratios (p < 0.01) between the two cohorts were selected and analyzed with HPLC/MS. Proteins were identified by Uniprot database. Interactive protein networks were generated using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis and GRANITE software.

Results

The relative abundance of 105 proteins was observed in warm I/R injury. Functional grouping revealed four categories of importance: molecular chaperones/endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, oxidative stress, metabolism, and cell structure. Hypoxia up-regulated 1, calcium binding protein 1, calreticulin, heat shock protein (HSP) 60, HSP-90, and protein disulfide isomerase 3 were chaperonins significantly (p < 0.01) down-regulated and only one chaperonin, HSP-1was significantly upregulated in steatotic liver following I/R.

Conclusion

Down-regulation of the chaperones identified in this analysis may contribute to the increased ER stress and, consequently, apoptosis and necrosis. This study provides an initial platform for future investigation of the role of chaperones and therapeutic targets for increasing the viability of steatotic liver allografts.

We have previously reported reduced overall and disease-free survival in black patients from a 10-year retrospective review of 668 patients from tumor registry data. This study of 213 patients reports the analysis of available archived tissue from a city hospital (n=44 patients, 53% black) and from a university medical center (n=169, 10.6% black). Two senior pathologists independently reviewed slides for predetermined histologic criteria reported to correlate with survival: tumor type, stage at diagnosis, character of invasion, vascular or perineural invasion, the presence of residual adenoma, the presence of a Crohn's-like reaction and number of nodes resected. Differences in discrete variables were compared using the Chi-squared test. Differences in continuous variables were analyzed using independent t tests. No statistically significant differences were identified in tumor stage or type by institution or race. In patients treated at the city hospital, there was a higher incidence of infiltrating tumors (85% vs. 61%, p<0.001), vascular invasion (70% vs. 36%, p<0.05) and residual adenoma (84% vs. 39%, p<0.05); however, no differences by race were identified. Blacks at both hospitals had significantly more perineural invasion (81% vs. 30%, p<0.05) and Crohn's-like reaction (64% vs. 30%, p<0.05) when compared to white patients, although there was no difference between hospitals. The total number of lymph nodes resected was higher at the university hospital (17.0 vs. 8.9, p<0.001). There were no differences in number of nodes resected at either institution by race. Histopathologic findings did not explain the apparent disparity in survival. The differences in number of nodes harvested may suggest inadequate resection or insufficient recovery of nodes by the pathologist.

Background

The authors compared two strategies for the maintenance of intraoperative normothermia during orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT): the routine forced-air warming system and the newly developed, whole body water garment.

Methods

In this prospective, randomized and open-labelled study, 24 adult patients were enrolled in one of two intraoperative temperature management groups during OLT. The water-garment group (N = 12) received warming with a body temperature (esophageal) set point of 36.8°C. The forced air-warmer group (N = 12) received routine warming therapy using upper- and lower-body forced-air warming system. Body core temperature (primary outcome) was recorded intraoperatively and during the two hours after surgery in both groups.

Results

The mean core temperatures during incision, one hour after incision and during the skin closing were significantly higher (p < 0.05, t test with Bonferroni corrections for the individual tests) in the water warmer group compared to the control group (36.7 ± 0.1, 36.7 ± 0.2, 36.8 ± 0.1 vs 36.1 ± 0.4, 36.1 ± 0.4, 36.07 ± 0.4°C, respectively). Moreover, significantly higher core temperatures were observed in the water warmer group than in the control group during the placement of cold liver allograft (36.75 ± 0.17 vs 36.09 ± 0.38°C, respectively) and during the allograft reperfusion period (36.3 ± 0.26 vs 35.52 ± 0.42°C, respectively). In addition, the core temperatures immediately after admission to the SICU (36.75 ± 0.13 vs 36.22 ± 0.3°C, respectively) and at one hr (36.95 ± 0.13 vs 36.46 ± 0.2°C, respectively) were significantly higher in the water warmer group, compared to the control group, whereas the core temperature did not differ significantly afte two hours in ICU in both groups.

Conclusions

The investigated water warming system results in better maintenance of intraoperative normothermia than routine air forced warming applied to upper- and lower body.