Alloimmunity: No Toll Exemption

Neonatal B cells suppress innate toll-like receptor immune responses and modulate alloimmunity.

It has been known for decades that neonates are susceptible to transplant tolerance, but the immunological mechanisms involved remain to be fully elucidated. Recent evidence indicates that the maturation state of DCs responding to an allograft may have a profound impact on whether immunity or tolerance ensues. Given that TLR activation is a key process leading to DC maturation, we hypothesized ...

The Nonprofit Hospital Exemption

In Duke University' the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) faced squarely for the first time the proper application of the nonprofit hospital exemption of section 2(2) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)2 in the context of a nonprofit, nonhospital employer operating a medical center and hospital as part of a large university. The Board easily found a basis for jurisdiction over Duke U...

Modulation of Alloimmunity by Heat Shock Proteins

The immunological mechanisms that evolved for host defense against pathogens and injury are also responsible for transplant rejection. Host rejection of foreign tissue was originally thought to be mediated mainly by T cell recognition of foreign MHC alleles. Management of solid organ transplant rejection has thus focused mainly on inhibition of T cell function and matching MHC alleles between d...

Grand Challenges in Alloimmunity and Transplantation

The pioneering Times Although the concept of Transplantation could be traced back as early as Saint Cosmas and Damian most famous miracle, grafting of a leg to replace a patient’s ulcered leg, it is not before the 50’s that it entered reality. Important steps were made before, from sewing vessels to understanding the basis of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in mice (Snell, 1986). Thi...

Redefining the Antitrust Labor Exemption