The Toronto Hospital, University Health Network, Ontario, Canada. rgorczynski@transplantunit.org
Transplantation has emerged as an effective treatment for patients with end-stage organ failure. Current regimens of non-specific immunosuppressive drug treatment, which are needed life-long to prevent graft rejection, have numerous adverse side effects and increase the risk of opportunistic infections and malignancy. A major goal is to develop immunotherapeutic protocols that achieve specific tolerance. Such protocols would decrease and eventually eliminate the reliance on non-specific drug therapy. We showed that portal vein delivery of donor antigen prolongs the survival of vascularized and non-vascularized allo- and xeno-grafts, and that increased graft survival is associated with altered cytokine production and augmented expression of the molecule OX2. This review documents further evidence for a more general immunoregulatory role for the interactions of OX2 and its ligand, OX2L.