Figure 2.
Vaccine promotes allograft survival of RCMV infected donor hearts. Vaccination of recipients with H2O2‐inactivated RCMV at 70 pretransplantation promotes survival of RCMV‐infected donor hearts compared to unvaccinated controls and recipients vaccinated at 35 days pretransplant. Heterotopic heart allografts (RCMV + / −) were transplanted into RCMV‐naïve recipients or animals vaccinated at 35 or 70 pretransplant (n = 6). Heart graft recipients were monitored over a 120‐day period for clinical graft rejection. (A) Graft survival curves were produced using GraphPad Prism 5 software. (B) Graph depicts the mean time of rejection for each group as well as the time to rejection for each replicate. (C) Sections of graft hearts were stained with H&E and elastic von Gieson in order to determine the degree of vascular disease in the coronary arteries. The average neointimal index (vascular disease, TVS) for each group as well as the NI for each individual heart graft were graphed (means and SEM) using Prism 5 software. Standard deviation is indicated with error bars. The severity of TVS (NI scores) between the vaccine groups was analyzed and compared using Student's t‐test (p‐values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant).