Histopathological examinations of human coronary arteries affected by transplant vascular
sclerosis have revealed the presence of a sparse subendothelial infiltrate comprised of host
T cells and mononuclear phagocytes within an expanded vascular intima showing little
evidence of cell injury. The location of the T cells initially led us to hypothesize that persisting
graft endothelial cells lining the arterial lumen served as a nidus of chronic immune
stimulation for the subjacent host T cell infiltrate. We further hypothesized that such …