Isotransplantation of microencapsulated parathyroid tissue in rats

Permanent hypoparathyroidism is one of the most difficult of all endocrine disorders to treat medically. While autotransplantation of parathyroid tissue is clinically established, allotransplantation without immunosuppression is still at the level of animal experiments. Although persons affected by hypoparathyroidism are facing a clearly reduced quality of life, hypoparathyroidism rarely is a life threatening condition. Therefore, systemic immunosuppression for recipients of allotransplants is not justified. A conceptional alternative would be protecting the tissue to be transplanted from the immunologic response by coating it with a semipermeable membrane (microencapsulation). In 1994, we succeeded in iso-, allo- and xenotransplantation of microencapsulated parathyroid tissue in an animal model. Unfortunately, prior to the first clinical use, further analysis of the coating substance (alginate) demonstrated that it has mitogenic properties. Here, we report on the first successful transplantation of microencapsulated parathyroid tissue using a purified, non-mitogenic alginate which is suitable for clinical use.