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Investigating the Immunological Mechanisms Underlying Organ Transplant Rejection
05:10

Investigating the Immunological Mechanisms Underlying Organ Transplant Rejection

Published on: August 20, 2007

Mechanisms involved in antibody- and complement-mediated allograft rejection

Barbara A Wasowska1

  • 1Department of Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Ross Bldg. 664B, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. bwasowsk@jhmi.edu

Immunologic Research
|February 6, 2010
PubMed

Antibody-mediated rejection has become critical clinically because this form of rejection is usually unresponsive to conventional anti-rejection therapy, and therefore, it has been recognized as a major cause of allograft loss. Our group developed experimental animal models of vascularized organ transplantation to study pathogenesis of antibody- and complement-mediated endothelial cell injury leading to graft rejection. In this review, we discuss mechanisms of antibody-mediated graft rejection resulting from activation of complement by C1q- and MBL (mannose-binding lectin)-dependent pathways and interactions with a variety of effector cells, including macrophages and monocytes through Fcgamma receptors and complement receptors.

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