Hair Follicle Dermal Sheath Derived Cells Improve Islet Allograft Survival without Systemic Immunosuppression

Figure 5

DSCC partially prevents infiltration of leukocytes into the allografts. Representative tissue sections of transplanted grafts of group 1 (DSCC and islets) or group 2 (FB and islets) after one week (a), two weeks (b), or three weeks (c) are presented. The insulin⁺ or CD45⁺ cells are stained brown (DAB system). Isletitis grade (d) was assessed as described previously [16]. Grade 1, mononuclear infiltration, largely in the periphery, in less than 25% of the islets; grade 2, 25 to 50% of islets showing mononuclear infiltration; grade 3, over 50% of islets showing mononuclear infiltration; and grade 4, over 75%, small, retracted islets with few mononuclear cells. (e) Numbers of insulin⁺ stained cells were calculated in three individual allografts per field. A significantly higher number of insulin⁺ cells were in group 1 (DSCC) transplants compared with group 2 (FB) transplants at all three time points. No insulin⁺ cells were found in group 2 transplants at three weeks after transplant. (f) Numbers of CD45⁺ stained cells were calculated in three individual allografts per group. (g) Kinetics of mRNA expression for Th1 (Ccr2, Ccr5, and Cxcr3) chemokines, Th2 (Ccr3, Ccr4, and Ccr8) chemokines, Foxp3, Il10, and Tgfβ1 was detected by quantitative real-time PCR in the allografts from group 1 (DSCC) and group 2 (FB) after one week (in red), two weeks (in green), and three weeks (in blue) of transplantation. (d), (e), and (f) were generated from 3 individual mice per group. (g) represents the results from three different mice with duplicated repeats, with Student -test showing significance, .

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