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130. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

30.04. - 03.05.2013, München

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Organ specific expression of the immunomodulator Lipocalin-2 in mice

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  • Natalie Vallant - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Hubert Schwelberger - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Stefan Schneeberger - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Herbert Maier - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Stefan König - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Markus Kofler - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Robert Öllinger - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Johann Pratschke - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck
  • Felix Aigner - Universitätsklinik Innsbruck, Abteilung für Visceral-Transplantations- und Thoraxchirurgie, Innsbruck

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie. 130. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie. München, 30.04.-03.05.2013. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2013. Doc13dgch144

doi: 10.3205/13dgch144, urn:nbn:de:0183-13dgch1443

Published: April 26, 2013

© 2013 Vallant et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Introduction: Lipocalin-2 (Lcn-2), also named NGAL or uterocalin, is a 25kDa glycoprotein playing a crucial role in innate and specific immune responses, apoptotic cell death and tumor development. Experimentally, Lcn-2 is highly upregulated in a murine heart transplantation model. Lack thereof protects from ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI). In humans, Lcn-2 is upregulated in the serum and urine of patients after liver/kidney transplantation with acute allograft rejection. Not much is known about the pathomechanisms involved. Aim of this study was to analyze the expression of Lcn-2 in various immunological/non immunological organs in mice, as no data on tissue specific expression of Lcn-2 in mice is available.

Material and methods: 36 tissue samples were recovered from male and female wild-type and Lcn2-/- mice, respectively. Tissues were snap frozen or formalin fixed and processed for analysis of Lcn-2 RNA and protein expression as well as localization employing RT-PCR, Western blot and Immunohistochemistry. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA.

Results: On RNA and protein level, strong expression of Lcn-2 could be detected in testis, spleen, lung and uterus, weaker expression was seen in the liver, kidney, the small intestine and lymph nodes. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that Lcn-2 is predominantly expressed in neutrophilic granulocytes and macrophages, whereas in testis and uterus Lcn-2 could be mainly detected in epithelial cells.

Conclusion: Lcn-2 is expressed in lymphatic organs, “target” organs in organ transplantation and ovaries/testis in mice. Its expression, mainly found in immune cells, supports its role as immunomodulator. Due to the localization of Lcn-2 in organs used for transplantation, it should be given full consideration as a target molecule in pathological processes in solid organ transplantation.