Induction of tolerance to alloantigen.
The study of transplantation tolerance has been a major area of immunological research since the pioneering work by Medawar and colleagues. It has been classically defined as the absence of an immune response to a specific antigen in the setting of an otherwise normal immune system. The induction of tolerance to alloantigen in the transplantation setting would not only allow better graft survival but would also obviate the need for immunosuppressive therapy. The induction of tolerance is considered by many to be the "holy grail" of organ transplantation but, despite many years of experimental investigation, reliable induction of allograft tolerance has not been achieved in humans. There exists four fundamental mechanisms of T cell tolerance that may be operational in the transplantation setting: deletion, functional anergy, ignorance and regulation/suppression. Several strategies to induce tolerance in transplantation have been employed, but most of these tolerogenic strategies have been investigated in rodents and it remains to be determined whether they can be transferred into large outbred animal models or clinical transplantation.
Witzke
O
O
Nuffield Department of Surgery, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, UK.
Barbara
J A
JA
Wood
K J
KJ
D000818:Animals; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007519:Isoantigens / Q000276:immunology*; D016377:Organ Transplantation; D014181:Transplantation Immunology; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
D007519:Isoantigens