Keywords triptolide cardiac allograft allograft rejection immunosuppression

Abstract This paper was designed to evaluate the effect of triptolide (Tri) on cardiac allograft survival in mouse ear. In our studies triptolide was demonstrated to suppress the rejection of cardiac allograft in mouse ear. The effect was both doseª² dependent and timeª² dependent. In addition, the studies also evaluted the effect of Tri on T lymphocyte proliferation induced by Con A or mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) in vitro. The results showed that Tri notably inhibited T lymphocyte transformation (LT) at 0.04~10 μ g/L and MLR at 0.2~10 μg/L. All these inhibitory effects were timeª² dependent. Maximal inhibition of LT and MLR was observed when Tri was added in the first 12 h of incubation. The effect of Tri on Con Aª² induced IL- 2 production and IL- 2R expression of lymphocytes was assayed. It was found that Tri at 0.4 μ g/L and 10 μ g/L had no significant inhibitory effect on the synthesis of IL- 2 by freshly isolated mouse splenocytes prestimulated with Con A for 24 h and 48 h. Examination of the effect of Tri on IL- 2 receptor expression indicated that Tri can reduce IL- 2R expression. These results suggested that Tri could inhibit the acute phase of transplant rejection but not to prevent allograft rejection.