Emerging Perspectives in TransplantationExperimental transplantationGalectin-9 in Combination With EX-527 Prolongs the Survival of Cardiac Allografts in Mice After Cardiac Transplantation

•We found that the levels of circulating TH17 cells increased in the peripheral blood of mice that exhibited acute rejection (AR) after heart transplantation.•The circulating TH17 cells in the peripheral blood may be used as a marker for the prediction of AR in heart transplant recipients.•Gal-9 or EX-527 can inhibit the activation and differentiation of TH17 cell and effectively suppress TH17-cell-mediated AR.•These data provide new evidence for the potential regulatory effects of Gal-9 in alloimmune responses in a murine model of heart transplantation.

Galectin-9 (Gal-9), a member of the galectin family, has a variety of biologic activities. However, its role in allografts is not fully clarified yet. The relationship between interleukin-17 (IL-17) and Gal-9 and the role of Gal-9 in TH17-cell differentiation also remain unclear. We built a murine cardiac transplantation model, which we treated with Gal-9 and/or EX-527, a specific Sirtuin-1 inhibitor. Afterwards, flow-cytometric analysis and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction were used to detect the number of TH17 cells and the expression of key factors involved in the differentiation of TH17 cells; in addition, the survival times of cardiac transplanted mice in different groups were recorded. The levels of circulating TH17 cells were found to increase in the peripheral blood of mice that exhibited acute rejection (AR) after heart transplantation, which was determined to be correlated with the rejection grade. Gal-9 or EX-527 can inhibit the activation and differentiation of TH17 cells and effectively suppress TH17-cell-mediated AR. These data provide new evidence for the potential regulatory effects of Gal-9 in alloimmune responses in a murine model of heart transplantation, and suggest the combined use of galectin-9 and EX-527 may be a powerful method to induce tolerance of fully mismatched murine cardiac allografts.