Spontaneous Renal Allograft Acceptance Associated with “Regulatory” Dendritic Cells and IDO

MHC-mismatched DBA/2 renal allografts are spontaneously accepted by C57BL/6 mice by poorly understood mechanisms, but both immune regulation and graft acceptance develop without exogenous immune modulation. Previous studies have shown that this model of spontaneous renal allograft acceptance is associated with TGF-β-dependent immune regulation, suggesting a role for T regulatory cells. The current study shows that TGF-β immune regulation develops 30 days posttransplant, but is lost by 150 days posttransplant. Despite loss of detectable TGF-β immune regulation, renal allografts continue to function normally for >200 days posttransplantation. Because of its recently described immunoregulatory capabilities, we studied IDO expression in this model, and found that intragraft IDO gene expression progressively increases over time, and that IDO in “regulatory” dendritic cells (RDC) may contribute to regulation associated with long-term maintenance of renal allografts. Immunohistochemistry evaluation confirms the presence of both Foxp3+ T cells and IDO+ DCs in accepted renal allografts, and localization of both cell types within accepted allografts suggests the possibility of synergistic involvement in allograft acceptance. Interestingly, at the time when RDCs become detectable in spleens of allograft acceptors, ∼30% of these mice challenged with donor-matched skin allografts accept these skin grafts, demonstrating progression to “true” tolerance. Together, these data suggest that spontaneous renal allograft acceptance evolves through a series of transient mechanisms, beginning with TGF-β and T regulatory cells, which together may stimulate development of more robust regulation associated with RDC and IDO.