An increasing shortage of transplant donor organs currently results in an escalating number of preventable human deaths. Xenotransplantation. the use of animal organs for transplantation into humans, is now heralded as medicine's most viable answer to the urgent and insurmountable human organ scarcity. Although claimed to be a biomedical prerogative, xenotransplantation is a cultural phenomenon...

Xenotransplantation has been defined by the Public Health Service as any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation, or infusion into a human recipient of either (a) live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs (PHS 2001). The promis...

Background The human-to-rat hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) model is rare, unlike its human-to-mouse counterpart. rat models are desired, especially in areas of physiology, toxicology, and pharmacology. In addition to lymphocytes, macrophages also considered be important for xenotransplantation. We generated a xenotransplantation prove the role as barrier. Methods Immunodeficienc...

The cancer stem cell hypothesis postulates that tumor growth is driven by a rare subpopulation of tumor cells. Much of the supporting evidence for this intriguing idea is derived from xenotransplantation experiments in which human leukemia cells are grown in immunocompromised mice. We show that, when lymphomas and leukemias of mouse origin are transplanted into histocompatible mice, a very high...

The potential risk of cross-species transmission of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) to humans has slowed the development of xenotransplantation, using pigs as organ donors. Here, we show that PERVs are insensitive to restriction by divergent TRIM5alpha molecules despite the fact that they strongly restrict a variety of divergent lentiviruses. We also show that the human PERV A/C recombin...

Background Xenotransplantation involves the transplantation of nonhuman tissue or organs to humans. Worldwide shortage of organs for clinical applications has shifted the focus towards non-human sources. Pig represents a rich source of organ donors but the presence of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) represents a particular risk and considered as a major obstacle during xenotransplantati...

Xenotransplantation (XTx) provides a potential solution to the shortage of human organs and tissues, and has several advantages over other possible solutions to this problem. However, a number of scientific and ethical barriers exist, and need to be addressed in order to advance the field of XTx in a manner that optimizes its potential to benefit society and minimizes its risk. Some of the most...

Xenograft transplantation is perhaps the most immunologically difficult problem in transplantation today. An overwhelming hyperacute rejection reaction (HAR) occurs within minutes of organ implantation. Preformed antibodies are thought to initiate this process. We used a pig-to-dog renal xenograft transplant model and investigated methods of decreasing the severity of hyperacute rejection. Fema...