Antibody-induced NKG2D blockade in a rat model of intraportal islet transplantation leads to a deleterious reaction.

Intraportal islet transplantation is plagued by an acute destruction of transplanted islets. Amongst the first responders, NK cells and macrophages harbour an activating receptor, NKG2D, recognizing ligands expressed by stressed cells. We aimed to determine whether islet NKG2D ligand expression increases with culture time, and to analyse the impact of antibody-induced NKG2D blockade in islet transplantation.