Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Solid organ transplantation is widely accepted as an effective treatment for end organ failure. Although the treatment with immunosuppressive drugs has undoubtedly greatly improved graft survival, chronic rejection still has considerable impact on long term outcome. This, together with the undesirable side effects associated with life long treatment with immunosuppressive drugs, have significant implications for long term outcomes. In a small number of patients, drug non-compliance as well as controlled reduction or removal of maintenance immune suppressive drug therapy has led to the uncovering of a tolerant state. The challenge of achieving improved monitoring of all transplant patients may allow tailoring of immunosupression in a proportion of recipients thereby increasing the opportunities for the induction of specific unresponsiveness to donor alloantigens in the future. The immune system using several mechanisms to both induce and maintain tolerance to alloantigens, including the deletion of allo-reactive T cells, the induction of anergy, clonal exhaustion, ignorance and active suppression (immunoregulation) of allo-responses. A minor subpopulation of CD4+ T cells, regulatory or suppressor CD4+ T cells that co-express the cell-surface molecule CD25 (IL2 alpha subunit) at a high level may play a major role in the maintenance of specific unresponsiveness and operational tolerance to donor antigens in vivo. Intensive investigation of these cells in recent years has started to uncover the mechanisms of active suppression by regulatory T cells in this setting.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.trim.2005.03.011

Type

Journal article

Journal

Transpl Immunol

Publication Date

08/2005

Volume

14

Pages

225 - 230

Keywords

Animals, Graft Survival, Humans, T-Lymphocytes, Transplantation Tolerance