The top international journal Science Translational Medicine published on the cover page of the issue released on Mar 17 the article titled “Graft-derived extracellular vesicles transported across subcapsular sinus macrophages elicit B cell alloimmunity after transplantation”. This paper was said to pave new theoretical foundation for the clinical handling of graft rejective reaction. Zeng Furong, a postdoctoral researcher from Rheumatology Department of Xiangya Hospital Central South University, was the co-first author of the paper.
This research was completed under the instruction of Prof. Adrian E. Morelli, the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, University of Pittsburgh, and revealed the mechanism of donor extracellular vesicles activating the recipient B cells after skin or heart transplantation. By using flow cytometry and Fluorescence microscopy, it was demonstrated that the extracellular vesicles released from the graft were captured by the subcapsular lymphatic sinus macrophages in the recipient lymph nodes, and the intact donor antigen was subsequently presented by the macrophages to the recipient B cells, thereby activating the B cells to produce donor-specific antibodies. The research overturned the conventional concept that the donor leukocyte migration to the recipient was a prerequisite for the donor transplant rejection and meanwhile paved new theoretical foundation for the clinical handling of graft rejective reaction.
During the participation in the eight-year Ph.D. training program jointly by Central South University and the University of Pittsburgh from 2016 to 2018, Zeng Furong engaged in the research on exosomes and skin transplantation under the instruction of Prof. Adrian E. Morelli, University of Pittsburgh. After graduation, Zeng Furong had conducted research on melanoma diagnosis and treatment among the research team led by Prof. Chen Xiang, Central South University. She had published 18 SCI papers as the (co-)first author or (co-)corresponding author, the cumulative impact factor being over 100.
The team led by Prof. Chen Xiang was constantly committed to the clinical, basic and translational research on dermatological diseases. During the past five years, they published more than 200 SCI papers in international authoritative journals like N Engl J Med, Cancer Cell, Advanced Science, Nat Commun, J Allergy Clin Immun, Cancer Res, Oncogene, and PLos Biol.
Sources: Department of Dermatology
