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Immune tolerance in recipients of combined haploidentical bone marrow and kidney transplantation

Abstract

The success of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has been limited by transplant-associated toxicities related to the conditioning regimens used and to graft-vs-host disease (GVHD). The frequency and severity of GVHD observed when extensive HLA barriers are transgressed has greatly impeded the routine use of extensively HLA-mismatched HCT. Allogeneic HCT also has potential as an approach to organ allograft tolerance induction, but this potential has not been previously realized because of the toxicity associated with traditional conditioning. This paper reviews an approach to HCT involving reduced intensity conditioning that demonstrated sufficient safety in patients with hematologic malignancies, even in the HLA-mismatched transplant setting, to be applied for the induction of kidney allograft tolerance in humans with no other indication for HCT. These studies provided the first successful example of intentional organ allograft tolerance induction across HLA barriers in humans. Current data and hypotheses on the mechanisms of tolerance in these patients are reviewed.

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Acknowledgements

The work described here was supported by the NCI, NIAID, NHLBI and The Immune Tolerance Network. Research reported in this publication was performed in the CCTI Flow Cytometry Core, supported in part by the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health under awards S10RR027050 and S10OD020056. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Correspondence to M Sykes.

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This article was published as part of a supplement, supported by WIS-CSP Foundation, in collaboration with Gilead, Milteny Biotec, Gamida Cell, Adienne Pharma and Biotech, Medac Hematology, Kiadis Pharma, Almog Diagnostic.

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Sykes, M. Immune tolerance in recipients of combined haploidentical bone marrow and kidney transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 50 (Suppl 2), S82–S86 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2015.102

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