Vagal nerve stimulation potential therapeutic benefits in acute lung rejection and transplantation

Abstract

Allograft rejection, accompanied by a rise in proinflammatory cytokines, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality after lung transplantation. Immunosuppressive treatments are routinely employed as an effective way to prevent rejection, however, there is still an unmet need to develop new strategies to reduce the damage caused to transplanted organs by innate inflammatory responses. Recent research has shown that activating the vagus nerve's efferent arm regulates cytokine production and improves survival in experimental conditions of cytokine excess, such as sepsis, hemorrhagic shock, ischemia-reperfusion injury, among others. The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway can provide a localized, fast, and discrete response to inflammation by controlling the neuroimmune response and preventing excessive inflammation. This review intends to assess and discuss, the influence of noninvasive vagal nerve stimulation for prophylactic measures and supporting treatment in patients undergoing organ transplantation rejection with a prominent T-cell mediated immune response as a means of attenuating inflammation and leukocyte infiltration of the graft vessels.