title: Recognition of cellular implants by the brain's innate immune system.
abstract: Currently, much attention is given to the development of cellular therapies for treatment of central nervous system (CNS) injuries. Diverse cell implantation strategies, either to directly replace damaged neural tissue or to create a neuroregenerative environment, are proposed to restore impaired brain function. However, because of the complexity of the CNS, it is now becoming clear that the contribution of cell implantation into the brain will mainly act in a supportive manner. In addition, given the time dependence of neural development during embryonic and post-natal life, cellular implants, either self or non-self, will most likely have to interact for a sustained period of time with both healthy and injured neural tissue. The latter also implies potential recognition of cellular implants by the innate immune system of the brain. In this review, we will emphasize on preclinical observations in rodents, regarding the recognition and immunogenicity of autologous, allogeneic and xenogeneic cellular implants in the CNS of immune-competent hosts. Taken together, we here suggest that a profound study of the interaction between cellular grafts and the brain's innate immune system will be inevitable before clinical cell transplantation in the CNS can be performed successfully.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute (Vaxinfectio), Faculty of Medicine, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bergwerf
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tambuyzer
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: De Vocht
authors.forename: Kristien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Reekmans
authors.forename: Jelle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Praet
authors.forename: Jasmijn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Daans
authors.forename: Shyama
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pauwels
authors.forename: Annemie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van der Linden
authors.forename: Zwi N
authors.initials: ZN
authors.lastname: Berneman
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ponsaerts
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology*; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D064987:Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000276:immunology*; D014181:Transplantation Immunology / Q000276:immunology*