Xenotransplantation
(1998) Handbook of Vertebrate Immunology — ISBN: [0-12-546401-0], p. 619-634, published
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- This chapter focuses on xenotransplantation, which refers to the transplantation of organs between species. The first species to be considered as a potential organ donor for human xenotransplantation is the nonhuman primate such as the chimpanzee. However, the possibility of virus, especially retrovirus, transmission from these primates to humans and its ethical and financial aspects rapidly negated this option. Therefore, most investigators have recently proposed swine as an alternative source of organs for clinical transplantation. Unlike nonhuman primates, pigs are easy to breed, have anatomical and physiological characteristics compatible with humans, and have been well studied for several pathogens potentially transmissible to humans. Moreover, genetic engineering is now easily achieved in pigs. Pigs are phylogenetically distant from humans, and the immune reaction across such a barrier is far more severe than with allografts. In fact, while a human allograft is usually rejected within 5–7 days, a primarily vascularized pig xenograft is rejected by primates or humans within minutes or hours owing to hyperacute rejection (HAR). The observation that HAR takes place only when organ xenotransplantation is achieved across widely phylogenetically distant species led to a classification of xenografts into concordant versus discordant, based on the relative phylogenetic distance between the donor and recipient species, and the presence or absence of circulating xenoreactive natural antibodies (XNA) in the serum of the recipient. A great deal of effort has recently been directed into developing potential therapeutic approaches allowing long-term survival of pig-to-human discordant xenografts and opening the door to clinical xenografting. It has been postulated that if endothelial cell (EC) activation by human serum is suppressed for a sufficient period of time, the process of EC accommodation would occur and hyperacute rejection (HAR) of porcine to human primarily vascularized xenografts could be avoided;
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Gianello, P., Soares, M., & Latinne, D. (1998). Xenotransplantation. In Paul-Pierre Pastoret ; Philip Griebel : Hervé Bazin ; André Govaerts (eds) (ed.), Handbook of Vertebrate Immunology (p. p. 619-634). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012546401-7/50006-8