1. Mixed xenogeneic porcine chimerism tolerizes human anti-pig natural antibody-producing cells in a humanized mouse model
- Author
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Andrea Vecchione, Kristjana Frangaj, Markus A. Holzl, Hao Wei Li, Elizabeth E. Waffarn, Mohsen Khosravi-Maharlooei, Megan Sykes, Paresh Vishwasrao, and Steven Shao
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Swine ,Immunology ,Transplantation, Heterologous ,030230 surgery ,Chimerism ,Article ,03 medical and health sciences ,Mice ,0302 clinical medicine ,In vivo ,Antigens, Heterophile ,medicine ,Immune Tolerance ,Cytotoxic T cell ,Animals ,Humans ,B cell ,Bone Marrow Transplantation ,Transplantation ,B-Lymphocytes ,biology ,In vitro ,Tolerance induction ,Haematopoiesis ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Humanized mouse ,biology.protein ,Antibody - Abstract
Background A major obstacle to the success of organ transplantation from pigs to humans, necessitated by the shortage of human organs, is robust humoral immune rejection by pig-reactive human antibodies. Mixed xenogeneic hematopoietic chimerism induces xenoreactive B cell tolerance in rodents, but whether mixed pig/human chimerism could induce tolerance of human B cells to pig xenoantigens is unknown. Methods We investigated this question using a humanized mouse model in which durable mixed (pig-human) xenogeneic chimerism can be established. Results Human natural anti-pig cytotoxic antibodies, predominantly IgM, are detectable in non-chimeric humanized mouse serum, and pig-reactive antibodies were reduced in mixed chimeric versus non-chimeric humanized mice. This difference required persistent mixed chimerism and was not due to the adsorption of antibodies on pig cells in vivo. Furthermore, human B cells from spleens of mixed chimeric mice produced lower levels of anti-pig antibodies when stimulated in vitro compared with those from non-chimeric mice. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that mixed chimerism reduces human natural antibodies to pig xenoantigens, providing the first in vivo evidence of human B cell tolerance induction by mixed xenogeneic chimerism and supporting further evaluation of this approach for inducing human B cell tolerance to xenografts.
- Published
- 2021