Evaluation of 131I-anti-MIF mAb as a reporter for allograft rejection

Finding a specific agent will be useful for monitoring allorejection in clinic. The macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) was reported to be one of the major cytokines involved in allorejection. In this study, we evaluated whether 131I-anti-MIF mAb could be an efficient imaging reporter for monitoring allorejection. 131I-anti-MIF mAb or control 131I-IgG was injected to skin allotransplantation mice and T/NT ratios were evaluated. The imaging changes of grafts were dynamically displayed by whole-body images. The results showed that up-regulation of MIF expression was found in allografts but not in isografts. During the whole progression of rejection, the T/NT ratio in the 131I-anti-MIF mAb group was significantly higher than that in the 131I-IgG group and markedly increased on the top of rejection. The graft-rejection could also be shown more clearly in the 131I-anti-MIF mAb group by whole-body imaging. These results implied that 131I-anti-MIF mAb may be a valid method for facilitating the development of protocols to monitor allorejection.