Organ-specific features of human kidney lymphatics are disrupted in chronic transplant rejection.

ABSTRACT: Lymphatic vessels maintain tissue fluid homeostasis and modulate inflammation, yet their spatial organization and molecular identity in the healthy human kidney, and how these change during chronic transplant rejection, remain poorly defined. Here, we show that lymphatic capillaries initiate adjacent to cortical kidney tubules and lack smooth muscle coverage. These vessels exhibit an organ-specific molecular signature, enriched for CCL14, DNASE1L3, and MDK, with limited expression of canonical immune-trafficking markers found in other organ lymphatics, such as LYVE1 and CXCL8. In allografts with chronic mixed rejection, lymphatics become disorganized and infiltrate the medulla, with their endothelial junctions remodeling from a button-like to a continuous, zipper-like, architecture. Lympha

SUBMITTER: Jafree DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12435838 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature