Spontaneous liver graft acceptance is mediated by intragraft fas-ligand expression and viable passenger leukocytes

Fas and Fas ligand in gut and liver

“…Fas/FasL in liver transplants. Because of the high sensitivity of the liver to Fas-mediated injury and a major role of CTL in graft rejection, it is not surprising that several studies have focused on the role of Fas/ FasL liver transplant rejection (32,59,70,71). In a rodent model of liver transplantation in which donor hepatocytes are injected into host spleen, Kawahara et al.…”

“…Interestingly, despite the high susceptibility of hepatocytes to undergo Fas-mediated death, the issue of whether FasL can be present on donor hepatocytes during rejection or whether FasL ϩ hepatocytes can help prevent liver graft rejection is still unresolved. FasL mRNA levels have been shown to increase in a transplanted liver undergoing rejection, but it is unclear from these studies whether the increase in FasL mRNA is from infiltrating donor lymphocytes of host hepatocytes (32). At first thought, the idea of hepatocytes upregulating FasL expression to prevent rejection appears unlikely because expression of FasL by adenoviral transfection has been shown to result in massive hepatitis and death (90).…”