Specific tolerance across a discordant xenogeneic transplantation barrier.
Successful induction of tolerance across disparate (discordant) species barriers could overcome the organ shortage that presently limits clinical transplantation. We demonstrate here that xenogeneic swine thymic transplants can induce tolerance to swine antigens in mice, while positively selecting functional host CD4+ T cells. Immunologically normal C57BL/10 mice were thymectomized and depleted of T and natural killer cells; then they received transplants of fetal pig thymus and liver fragments. Mature mouse CD4+ T cells developed in the pig thymus grafts and migrated to the periphery. Swine grafts grew markedly and no anti-pig IgG response was produced. Mixed lymphocyte reactions confirmed that the new T cells were functional and were tolerant to pig antigens.
Transplantation Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston 02129.
L A
LA
Lee
H A
HA
Gritsch
J J
JJ
Sergio
J S
JS
Arn
R M
RM
Glaser
T
T
Sablinski
D H
DH
Sachs
M
M
Sykes
D000818:Animals; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000379:methods; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000276:immunology; D007959:Lymphocyte Culture Test, Mixed; D008212:Lymphocyte Depletion; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D013552:Swine; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology; D013934:Thymectomy; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000637:transplantation; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous