Xenotransplantation: application of disease resistance

1. Organ transplantation is now clinically routine for patients with end-stage organ failure. One major limitation in transplantation is chronic rejection involving the loss of the graft despite the use of immunosuppressive agents. Haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) chimerism, achieved through bone marrow transplantation (BMT), induces donor-specific tolerance to transplanted organs and prevents chronic rejection. 2. A second major limitation to organ transplantation is the donor shortage. Xenotransplantation, the transplantation of organs between different species, would have the ability to increase the availability of donor organs. 3. Current immunosuppressive therapies do not prevent the rejection of xenografts. Therefore, the only reliable method for achieving donor-specific tolerance to xenografts may require HSC chimerism. 4. In order to justify the use of BMT to induce transplantation tolerance in patients with non-life-threatening diseases, the morbidity and mortality associated with current conditioning regimens must be addressed. 5. The use of partial conditioning regimens to promote engraftment of xenogeneic HSC and the development of donor-specific tolerance may eventually make xenotransplantation in humans a clinical reality. 6. Additional advantages of xenotransplantation are the ability to genetically engineer the donor xenograft and resistance of some xenografts to infection by human viruses because of the species specificity of most viruses. 7. The clinical application of disease resistance for HIV and hepatitis B virus is the focus of the present review.