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Immunogenicity of wild-type pig tissues after ice-free cryopreservation in genetically engineered recipients

Description: PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: We have developed a new tissue preservation technology that minimizes the cellular immune response, T-cell proliferation and cytokine production, to allogeneic and xenogeneic tissues. Allogeneic tissues are limited by supply and are often not very effective. Xenogeneic tissues from non-primate species, such as pigs, are not limited by supply. They are, however, limited by the hyperacute immune rejection of xenogeneic tissue galactose-a(1,3)-galactose antigens in humans and other old world primates. This proposal evaluates whether or not the recognition of this xenogeneic antigen is minimized by our ice-free preservation technology. The outcome of this proposal will determine whether wild-type or genetically engineered pigs will provide cardiovascular, dermal and orthopedic soft tissues for the estimated 5 million plus potential clinical procedures annually in need of better products.

Funder: National Institutes of Health

Amount: $225,000

Funding type: research

Funder scheme: R43

Start date: 2015-04-10

End date: 2017-07-31

Investigator: KELVIN G.M. BROCKBANK

Institution: TISSUE TESTING TECHNOLOGIES, LLC

Topic: Xenotransplantation and immune response

Subfield: Surgery

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences