Alterations of the interleukin-4 pathway in production of tolerance by mixed hematopoietic chimerism.

Background: The induction of specific tolerance could prevent acute and chronic rejection, as well as immunosuppressive complications, in recipients of vascularized organ allografts. Mixed hematopoietic chimerism is one approach to allogeneic tolerance. In these studies we examined whether mixed chimerism can confer tolerance to heart allografts across major and minor histocompatiblity barriers.

Prevention of chronic rejection and graft arteriosclerosis by tolerance induction.

Chronic rejection is a major cause of graft failure in solid organ transplants after the first year. A characteristic lesion in a variety of chronically rejecting organs is a fibrointimal proliferative arteriosclerosis. It has been speculated that approaches to tolerance induction may be effective in obviating not only acute, but also chronic, rejection.

Induction of specific tolerance to small-bowel allografts.

Background: The induction of specific tolerance would greatly improve survival and functional state of organ transplant recipients. One approach that has recently received attention is the creation of mixed hematopoietic chimerism through the transplantation of allogeneic and syngeneic T-cell-depleted (TCD) bone marrows. In these studies we examined whether tolerance to highly immunogenic small-bowel transplants could be induced by mixed allogeneic chimerism.