Premium
Potential impact of the non‐human sialic acid N ‐glycolylneuraminic acid on transplant rejection risk
Author(s) -
PadlerKaravani Vered,
Varki Ajit
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
xenotransplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.052
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1399-3089
pISSN - 0908-665X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3089.2011.00622.x
Subject(s) - glycobiology , medicine , library science , computer science , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , glycoprotein , glycan
A major obstacle to clinical applications of xenotransplantation is the expression of immunogenic xenoantigens that provide targets for immune recognition of xenografts, leading to activation of host immunity and consequent rejection or poor engraftment. Among the best known xenoantigens is the “αGal” epitope (Galα1−3Galβ1−(3)4GlcNAc-R, where R is an underlying glycoconjugate) characterized by Galili and colleagues. This epitope is widely expressed by most mammals other than old world primates and recognized by abundant circulating human anti-α-Gal antibodies (1). Such antibodies are universally induced after birth in humans via exposure to gut bacteria bearing similar epitopes (2), and the resulting difficulties in xenotransplantation (3) have even encouraged production of alpha1,3-galactosyltransferase gene-knockout pigs (4) as a potential solution.