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Dendritic cells, tolerance and transplantation
Author(s) -
Coates Toby,
Krishnan Ravi,
Russ Graeme R.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
nephrology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1440-1797
pISSN - 1320-5358
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-1797.2000.00520.x
Subject(s) - alloimmunity , immunology , immune tolerance , peripheral tolerance , immunogenicity , transplantation , medicine , immune system , immunosuppression , antigen , dendritic cell , immunologic tolerance , surgery
SUMMARY: Dendritic cells (CD) are professional antigen‐presenting cells of the immune system that play a central role in the initiation of the alloimmune response. Recently these cells have been found to also play a role in the maintenance of peripheral tolerance to antigens. Dendritic cells initiate alloimmunity by migrating from the graft to lymphoid sites within the host where they activate alloantigen‐specific T cells. They are therefore an ideal target for new biological therapies aiming to divert the response away from immunity and towards tolerance. Genetic modification of DC with immunosuppressive cytokines has already proven successful in modifying the alloimmune response in vitro and in prolonging allograft survival in small animal transplantation studies. Manipulation of the DC subsets that maintain peripheral tolerance and targeting the mechanisms that control DC immunogenicity with somatic gene therapy is a promising and novel means of inducing immunosuppression for transplantation.