Natural Antibodies, Complement, And C-myc Gene In Xenograft Hyperacute Rejection

Although medical therapy is effective for many patients, the only definitive therapy is heart transplantation, which is limited severely by the number of donors. Xenotransplantation is been as a potential solution to the very urgent shortage of human donor organs. Cardiac xenotransplantation using animal donors is a potential biologic solution to the donor organ shortage. The past several years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in interspecies transplantation.The immune response, consisting of hyperacute rejection, currently prevents clinical xenotransplantation. Advances in the solution of this problem have been made using conventional immunosuppressive drugs and new agents whose use is based on an understanding of important steps in xenoimmunity.Unlike the immune response to cardiac allotransplantation that is mediated mainly by the cellular immune system and T lymphocytes, there are several complex components of the immune response to a xenograft that involve both humoral and cellular immunity. Hyperacute rejection is mediated by naturally occurring antibodies and complement and leads to graft destruction in a matter of minutes. In discordant combinations, a graft from one individual to another was destroyed rapidly by the hyperacute rejection response.