Apoptosis in acute pulmonary allograft rejection and cytomegalovirus infection

Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death, characterized by activation of endonucleases that cleave DNA into oligonucleosomal fragments, which can be identified by in situ terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL). This process has recently been implicated in cardiac and hepatic allograft rejection, and we investigated its contribution to acute pulmonary allograft rejection and cytomegalovirus (CMV) pneumonitis by in situ TUNEL of transbronchial biopsy specimens. In situ TUNEL was performed on 70 transbronchial biopsy samples collected from 25 pulmonary allograft recipients for diagnosis of acute rejection or CMV pneumonitis, and the number of apoptotic nuclei/mm(2) was correlated with the rejection grade (International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation classification). During acute pulmonary allograft rejection, apoptotic nuclei were demonstrated in pulmonary parenchymal cells and mononuclear infiltrating cells, and the number of apoptotic cells was positively correlated with the rejection grade. In addition, a marked increase in the density of apoptotic cells was found in pulmonary allografts with CMV pneumonitis. We conclude that apoptosis contributes to cell death during acute pulmonary allograft rejection and CMV infection.