Increased Th17 rather than Th1 alloimmune response is associated with cardiac allograft vasculopathy after hypothermic preservation in the rat

Our results demonstrate that preservation injury induced a cascade leading to an innate immune response that modulated the adaptive immune response towards Th17 rather than Th1 T-cell response in rat cardiac allografts and ultimately enhanced cardiac fibrosis and arterial occlusion. Our results also suggest that this immune response was not regulated by the calcineurin inhibitor cyclosporine A.