The effect of FK506 and Rapamycin on the expression of Foxp3+ Treg in liver cancer patients undergoing liver transplant and its clinical relevance

Objective To investigate the expression of Foxp3+ Treg in liver cancer patients receiving liver transplant after immunosuppressive protocols FK506 or Rapamycin and evaluate the rejection prevention.Methods Liver transplant patients were randomly divided into FK506 group (10 cases),and Rapamycin group (10 cases).Real time quantitatve PCR was used to examine Foxp3 mRNA expression of patients' PBMC starting the 2nd month for consecutively 10 months.Foxp3 mRNA and incidences of acute rejection were compared between the two groups.Results Foxp3 mRNA expression was significantly lower in the FK506 group (0.1032 ±0.0943) as compared to that in the Rapamycin group (1.2136 ±0.6738)(t =5.1610,P ＜ 0.01) ;The incidences of acute rejection was significantly lower in the Rapamycin group as compared to that in the FK506 group after operation in the same period (x2 =2.2222,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions FK506 may suppress the induction of immune tolerance after liver transplantation,while Rapamycin may play an important role in inducing and maintaining graft immune tolerance.Rapamycin is better than FK506 in preventing rejection reaction in liver cancer patients receiving liver transplant. Key words: Liver transplant ;  Graft rejection;  FK506 ;  Rapamycin