News

Monitoring of hepatocyte transplantation by MRI
Stacks Image 24761
A new book on Hepatocyte Transplantation Methods and Protocols, part of the series: Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol. 1506 P. Stock, B. Christ (Eds.), Springer, will be available end of November, 2016. We contributed a chapter on Preclinical swine models for monitoring of hepatocyte transplantation by MRI (authors: Nathanael Raschzok, Ulf Teichgräber, Johann Pratschke, and Igor M. Sauer) and are proud to provide the cover image.

This volume features up-to-date protocols for the isolation, preservation, and validation of various cell sources comprising large and small animal models, examining the impact of cell transplantation on acute and chronic liver diseases. Hepatocyte Transplantation: Methods and Protocols guides readers through laboratory protocols for the generation of humanized livers for the assessment of biological actions in vivo and techniques to monitor cell engraftment after cell transplantation in vivo are described and procedures for computational analyses of hepatocyte transplantation.

Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Comprehensive and practical, Hepatocyte Transplantation: Methods and Protocols is an essential resource for researchers and clinicians to assess the biological as well as the therapeutic potential of hepatocyte transplantation.
Back
Stacks Image 27655
Our manuscript "Depletion of donor dendritic cells ameliorates immunogenicity of both skin and hind limb transplants" has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Immunology, section Alloimmunity and Transplantation. Authors are Muhammad Imtiaz Ashraf, Joerg Mengwasser, Anja Reutzel-Selke, Dietrich Polenz, Kirsten Führer, Steffen Lippert, Peter Tang, Edward Michaelis, Rusan Catar, Johann Pratschke, Christian Witzel, Igor M. Sauer, Stefan G. Tullius, and Barbara Kern.

Acute cellular rejection remains a significant obstacle affecting successful outcomes of organ transplantation including vascularized composite tissue allografts (VCA). Donor antigen presenting cells (APC), particularly dendritic cells (DC), orchestrate early alloimmune responses by activating recipient effector T cells. Employing a targeted approach, we investigated the impact of donor-derived conventional DC (cDC) and APC on the immunogenicity of skin and skin-containing VCA grafts, using mouse models of skin and hind limb transplantation.
By post-transplantation day 6, skin grafts demonstrated severe rejections, characterized by predominance of recipient CD4 T cells. In contrast, hind limb grafts showed moderate rejection, primarily infiltrated by CD8 T cells. While donor depletion of cDC and APC reduced frequencies, maturation, and activation of DC in all analysed tissues of skin transplant recipients, reduction in DC activities was only observed in the spleen of hind limb recipients. Donor cDC and APC depletion did not impact all lymphocyte compartments but significantly affected CD8 T cells and activated CD4 T in lymph nodes of skin recipients. Moreover, both donor APC and cDC depletion attenuated the Th17 immune response, evident by significantly reduced Th17 (CD4+IL-17+) cells in the spleen of skin recipients and reduced levels of IL-17E and lymphotoxin-α in the serum samples of both skin and hind limb recipients. In conclusion, our findings underscore the highly immunogenic nature of skin component in VCA. The depletion of donor APC and cDC mitigates the immunogenicity of skin grafts while exerting minimal impact on VCA.

Archive


Categories

Year

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purpose illustrated in the Disclaimer. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to the use of cookies.