Mechanisms of Hypothermic Machine Perfusion to Decrease Donation After Cardiac Death Graft Inflammation: Through the Pathway of Upregulating Expression of KLF2 and Inhibiting TGF-β Signaling

Hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) has been known as an efficient way to improve kidney graft function, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we adopt a rabbit reperfusion mode to investigate the upstream mechanisms of end-ischemic HMP of kidneys from donors after cardiac death (DCD), with static cold storage (CS) as a control. Eighteen New Zealand healthy male rabbits (12 weeks old, with a weight of 3.0 ± 0.2 kg) were randomly divided into three groups: HMP group, CS group, and Normal group (n = 6). The left kidney of rabbits underwent warm ischemia for 25 min through clamping the left renal pedicle and then reperfusion for 1 h. Then the left kidneys were preserved by CS or HMP (4°C for 4 h) ex vivo respectively, after they were autotransplanted and rabbits were submitted to a right nephrectomy. Twenty-four hours after reperfusion, all left renal specimens were collected. Finally, the expression of Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and SMAD4 protein in renal cortical tissue were detected by immunoblotting, and the TGF-β and SMAD4 expressions were further confirmed by immunohistochemistry analysis. We found that expression of KLF2 in HMP group was significantly higher than CS group (P = 0.011), while expression of TGF-β and SMAD4 in HMP group were significantly lower than CS group (P = 0.002, P = 0.01, respectively); Compared with normal group, the expression of TGF-β and SMAD4 in HMP and CS group significantly increased (P<0.05). Compared with CS group, TGF-β and SMAD4 protein were equally down-regulated in glomerular and the tubular epithelial cells in HMP group confirmed by immunohistochemistry. In conclusion, HMP may decrease DCD kidneys inflammation through the pathway of upregulating expression of KLF2 and inhibiting TGF-β signaling after transplantation.