Donor dopamine treatment in brain dead rats is associated with an improvement in renal function early after transplantation and a reduction in renal inflammation

Brain death (BD) is associated with tissue inflammation. As dopamine treatment of BD donor rats reduces renal monocyte infiltration, we tested if this treatment affects renal function and inflammation in recipients. BD was induced in F344 rats and was maintained for 6 h in all experiments. Dopamine was given for 6 (DA6) or 3 h (DA3) from the onset of BD. Ventilated non-BD (NBD) and BD animals served as controls. Kidneys were transplanted into bilaterally nephrectomized Lewis recipients. Serum creatinine (s-crea) was measured and leukocyte infiltration was assessed 10 days after transplantation. One day after transplantation, s-crea was significantly reduced in recipients who received a renal allograft from dopamine treated BD or from NBD rats compared to BD vehicle (P < 0.05). Ten days after transplantation, the number of infiltrating monocytes was significantly lower in grafts obtained from dopamine treated and from NBD rats (P < 0.05). A reduced infiltration in these grafts was confirmed by Banff 97 classification. Cytokine-induced neutrophil-chemoattractant 1 and interleukin (IL)-6 mRNA expression were reduced in DA rats compared to BD controls. No difference for macrophage chemoattractant protein 1 and IL-10 were found. These findings may explain the salutary effect of donor dopamine treatment in renal transplantation.