Metastable tolerance in nonhuman primates and humans

It is clear that both humans and nonhuman primates can do without immunosuppression for long periods of time before rejecting their allogeneic organ transplants. Immune cell depletion, particularly lymphocyte depletion, is an effective clinical strategy for achieving a tolerant state. Based on nonhuman primate and human studies, evidence suggests that metastable tolerance develops over time in a donor-specific manner and is mediated at least in part by donor antigen-specific regulatory T cells. Suppression of effector T cells by CD8+ and CD4+ T-regulatory cells is mediated by transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta or interleukin 10, and the presence of CD4+ TGF beta(latent) T-cell infiltrates may be a useful diagnostic marker for metastable tolerance. Loss of these cells has been shown to correlate with loss of tolerance. Future efforts to withdraw immunosuppressive drugs and establish a tolerant state will depend importantly on development of such diagnostic immunologic monitoring tools. Some of the reasons that tolerance remains such a challenging goal in clinical transplantation are discussed herein.