Pathogenesis of transplantation arteriopathy. Myointimal cells express HLA-DR antigens during rejection.

Arteries were investigated ultrastructurally in material from 40 needle and wedge biopsies of renal allografts, and immunohistochemically in another 10 cases with signs of chronic obliterative transplantation arteriopathy. In the early biopsies, but even in the control kidneys, thin extensions of the smooth muscle cells of the media were observed, which were in direct contact with the endothelial cells through the lamina elastica interna. These extensions may contain receptors mediating endothelial noxae to the smooth muscle cells thus initiating their proliferation, migration to the intima presumably begins in the early post-transplant period and continues until the lumen is occluded. Concomitantly, inflammatory cells (mainly macrophages, with a smaller number of CD4 and CD8-positive T lymphocytes) invade the intima. The proliferating myointimal cells, possibly having become HLA-DR-positive, may behave as antigen-presenting cells, enhancing the anti-graft immune response further, and aggravating the arterial injury.