When we used this laser capture microscopy, we were able to isolate very small pieces of tissue with single macrophages within them. Then we analyzed this small amount of tissue and found that the genes that produce the chemokines CCL17 and CCL22 were higher in the tissue from the hearts that had undergone chronic rejection after 50 days (Chronic d50 dark line) as compared to the hearts that had been allowed to reject in only 7 days.
The important message here is that CCL17 and CCL22 may be genes that are only increased in chronic rejection and therefore may be a key to understanding how to stop chronic rejection and the eventual loss of the transplanted organ.
