Background: Despite efforts to ensure equitable access to liver transplantation (LT), significant disparities remain. Although prior literature has considered the effects of patient sex, race, and income, the contemporary impact of community socioeconomic disadvantage on outcomes after waitlisting for LT remains to be elucidated. We sought to evaluate the association of community-level socioeconomic deprivation with survival after waitlisting for LT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs important immune regulatory cells, whether innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are involved in liver transplantation (LT) remains unclear. In a murine orthotopic LT model, we dissected roles of ILCs in liver ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). Wild type (WT) grafts suffered significantly higher IRI in Rag2-γc double knockout (DKO) than Rag2 KO recipients, in association with downregulation of group 1 ILCs genes, including IFN-γ.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough cold preservation remains the gold standard in organ transplantation, cold stress-induced cellular injury is a significant problem in clinical orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Because a recent study showed that cold stress activates ferroptosis, a form of regulated cell death, we investigated whether and how ferroptosis determines OLT outcomes in mice and humans. Treatment with ferroptosis inhibitor (ferrostatin-1) during cold preservation reduced lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde; MDA), primarily in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs), and alleviated ischemia/reperfusion injury in mouse OLT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a significant clinical concern in liver transplantation, with a key influence on short-term and long-term allograft and patient survival. Myeloid cells trigger and sustain tissue inflammation and damage associated with IRI, but the mechanisms regulating these activities are unknown. To address this, we investigated the molecular characteristics of intragraft myeloid cells present in biopsy-proven IRI- and IRI+ liver transplants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with severe heart disease may have coexisting liver disease from various causes. The incidence of combined heart-liver transplant (CHLT) is increasing as more patients with congenital heart disease survive to adulthood and develop advanced heart failure with associated liver disease from chronic right-sided heart or Fontan failure. However, the criteria for CHLT have not been established.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a histone/protein deacetylase in the cellular response to inflammatory, metabolic, and oxidative stressors. We previously reported that myeloid SIRT1 regulates the inflamed liver's canonical pyroptosis cell death pathway. However, whether/how hepatocyte SIRT1 is engaged in programmed cell death in the cold-stressed liver remains uncertain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Preoperative risk assessment in liver transplant (LT) candidates, particularly related to cardiac risk, is an area of intense interest for transplant clinicians. Various cardiac testing methods are employed by transplant centers to characterize cardiac risk. Serum troponin is an established method for the detection of myocardial injury in a wide variety of clinical settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a severe immune-mediated stage of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that is rapidly becoming the most common etiology requiring liver transplantation (LT), with Hispanics bearing a disproportionate burden. This study aimed to uncover the underlying immune mechanisms of the disparities experienced by Hispanic patients undergoing LT for NASH.
Methods: We enrolled 164 LT recipients in our institutional review board-approved study, 33 of whom presented with NASH as the primary etiology of LT (20%), with 16 self-reported as Hispanic (48%).
Although alternative splicing (AS) drives transcriptional responses and cellular adaptation to environmental stresses, its contributions in organ transplantation have not been appreciated. We have shown that carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule (Ceacam1; ), a transmembrane biliary glycoprotein expressed in epithelial, endothelial, and immune cells, determines donor liver transplant quality. Here, we studied how AS of affects ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in mouse and human livers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1 (CC1) acts through homophilic and heterophilic interactions with T cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (TIM-3), which regulates innate immune activation in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). We investigated whether cluster of differentiation (CD) 4 T cell-dependent CC1-TIM-3 crosstalk may affect OLT outcomes in mice and humans.
Methods: Wild-type (WT) and CC1-deficient (CC1 knock-out [KO]) mouse livers were transplanted into WT, CC1KO, or T-cell TIM-3 transgenic (TIM-3Tg)/CC1KO double-mutant recipients.
Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a histone/protein deacetylase involved in cellular senescence, inflammation, and stress resistance. We previously reported that myeloid SIRT1 signaling regulates the inflamed liver's canonical pyroptosis cell death pathway. However, whether/how hepatocyte SIRT1 is engaged in programmed cell death in the cold-stressed liver remains uncertain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although non-target puncture (NPT)-related complications are well known to clinicians performing TIPS, there is no NTP-focused study to assess the true clinical sequalae of NTP-related complications. In this study, the aim was to evaluate the incidence, safety, clinical outcomes and complications related to NTPs during the portal access of TIPS procedures.
Methods: A retrospective review of 369 TIPS procedures from October 2007 to September 2019 was performed.
Background: The molecular mechanisms underlying Fontan associated liver disease (FALD) remain largely unknown. We aimed to assess intrahepatic transcriptomic differences among patients with FALD according to the degree of liver fibrosis and clinical outcomes.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study included adults with the Fontan circulation at the Ahmanson/UCLA Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center.
T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin ()4 is expressed on APCs, including macrophages, as one of the main amplifiers in the mechanism of liver ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Though donor selectively expressed on Kupffer cells serves as a checkpoint regulator of innate immune-driven IRI cascades, its role on cells outside the OLT remains unclear. To dissect the role of donor vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPersistent pleural effusions (PPEf) represent a known complication of orthotopic liver transplant (OLT). However, their clinical relevance is not well described. We evaluated the clinical, biochemical, and cellular characteristics of post-OLT PPEf and assessed their relationship with longitudinal outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeutrophils, the largest innate immune cell population in humans, are the primary proinflammatory sentinel in the ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) mechanism in orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1, CC1, or CD66a) is essential in neutrophil activation and serves as a checkpoint regulator of innate immune-driven IRI cascade in OLT. Although CC1 alternative splicing generates two functionally distinct short and long cytoplasmic isoforms, their role in neutrophil activation remains unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a rare case of combined hepatocellular carcinoma-cholangiocarcinoma in a woman with a history of univentricular congenital heart disease requiring multiple corrective operations including Fontan procedure. During workup for elevated alpha fetal protein, a right hepatic lobe lesion was identified with biopsy showing poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma. She underwent successful segment 5 liver resection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: The stimulator of interferon genes (STING)/TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) pathway is vital in mediating innate immune and inflammatory responses during oxidative/endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. However, it remains unknown whether macrophage thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) may regulate TBK1 function and cell death pathways during oxidative/ER stress.
Methods: A mouse model of hepatic ischaemia/reperfusion injury (IRI), the primary hepatocytes, and bone marrow-derived macrophages were used in the myeloid-specific TXNIP knockout (TXNIP) and TXNIP-proficient (TXNIP) mice.