We found that in mice that underwent acute and chronic rejection of their heart transplants, both T cells and macrophages could be found. This was found by taking small pieces of the heart tissue from the mouse and putting it under a high powered microscope. An antibody that binds to T cells and macrophages, MOMA-2, is then used to tag these cells so that we can see if they are present or not.
Our results found that the T cells and the macrophages were found in the samples labelled Allograft Heart Chronic d50 in the bottom line in the figure to the right. The brown dots in the slides represent what the tag/staining for the T cells and the macrophages looks like.
Chronic d50 refers to heart tissue from hearts that have been in place for 50 days after treatment to make them undergo chronic rejection, similar to what we see in humans.
This is one of the few times that scientists have been able to locate these two different cell types together.
