title: Apoptotic cell-linked immunoregulation: implications for promoting immune tolerance in transplantation.
abstract: The induction of alloantigen-specific immune tolerance is the "Holy-Grail" in transplantation. Although it had been previously demonstrated that transient depletion of T cells through apoptosis could lead to long-term immune tolerance, the underlying mechanism responsible for this tolerance induction and maintenance was unknown. In this short article, a novel mechanism for long-term immune tolerance via transient T cell apoptosis will be discussed, based on our recent findings in a CD3-specific antibody treatment-induced immune tolerance mouse model. Transforming growth factor-β, which is produced by immature dendritic cells whilst they phagocytose apoptotic T cells and by macrophages, plays an important role in initiating long-term immune tolerance. A possible model of how allospecific-immune tolerance can be induced in order to prevent allograft rejection in transplantation will be also proposed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, China.
authors.forename: Ruixia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kuang
authors.affiliation: Inserm, UMR1098, Besançon, France.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Perruche
authors.affiliation: Mucosal Immunology Section, OPCB,NIDCR, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA.
authors.forename: WanJun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen