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Organ transplantation and the liver tolerance effect: history, mechanisms, and potential implications for the future of transplant care

Chronic immune insult and immunosuppressant-related toxicities have remained an enduring challenge in organ transplantation. Long-term survival of transplant patients has improved marginally in recent decades due to these challenges. To circumvent these issues, transplant investigators have researched immune tolerance mechanisms that demonstrate potential to induce immunosuppression and rejection-free survival in the clinic. One mechanism in particular, the liver tolerance effect, has already demonstrated this experimentally and clinically. Liver transplants in experimental models and human patients have exhibited the ability to become spontaneously accepted without being rejected by the recipient’s immune system. Research in recent decades has revealed that the liver parenchymal and non-parenchymal cell populations harbor potent immunomodulatory properties. In the context of liver transplantation, it has been found that two cell populations in particular, the mesenchyme-derived liver sinusoidal endothelial cells and hepatic stellate cells, mediate the induction of liver transplant tolerance through a mechanism known as mesenchyme-mediated immune control.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/23827
Date13 July 2017
CreatorsKim, Andrew
Source SetsBoston University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis/Dissertation

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