Presensitization and late acute rejection episodes were the risk factors identified. Glomerular C4d deposits suggest that chronic transplant glomerulopathy emerges from in situ humoral rejection. Chronic transplant glomerulopathy should be considered as a manifestation of immune-mediated injury.

Tumor progression and development of metastases is a multicomplex system. Comparing protein expression in two cell lines derived from metastases with a cell line derived from a primary uveal melanoma from the same patient identified proteins involved in tumor progression, and proteins specifically expressed in the metastases, which have the potential of becoming clinically useful biomarkers.

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BackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by pulmonary inflammation, airways obstruction and emphysema, and is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the contribution of these individual COPD components to this increased risk is unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the contribution of emphysema in the presence or absence of pulmonary inflammation to the increased risk of CVD, using a mouse model for atherosclerosis. Because smoke is a known risk factor for both COPD and CVD, emphysema was induced by intratracheal instillation of porcine pancreatic elastase (PPE).MethodsHyperlipidemic APOE*3-Leiden mice were intratracheally instilled with vehicle, 15 or 30 µg PPE and after 4 weeks, mice received a Western-type diet (WTD). To study the effect of emphysema combined with pulmonary inflammation on atherosclerosis, mice received 30 µg PPE and during WTD feeding, mice were intranasally instilled with vehicle or low-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 1 µg/mouse, twice weekly). After 20 weeks WTD, mice were sacrificed and emphysema, pulmonary inflammation and atherosclerosis were analysed.ResultsIntratracheal PPE administration resulted in a dose-dependent increase in emphysema, whereas atherosclerotic lesion area was not affected by PPE treatment. Additional low-dose intranasal LPS administration induced a low-grade systemic IL-6 response, as compared to vehicle. Combining intratracheal PPE with intranasal LPS instillation significantly increased the number of pulmonary macrophages and neutrophils. Plasma lipids during the study were not different. LPS instillation caused a limited, but significant increase in the atherosclerotic lesion area. This increase was not further enhanced by PPE.ConclusionThis study shows for the first time that PPE-induced emphysema both in the presence and absence of pulmonary inflammation does not affect atherosclerotic lesion development.