Abstract
Transplantation of normal hemopoietic stem cells from the fetal liver can cure a number of diseases in experimental animals as well as in humans. Because of immune immaturity of the human fetus during the first trimester of gestation, fetal liver cells of 8–12 weeks post-fertilization are devoid of any T lymphocyte ; therefore they do not induce graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) after transplantation into an allogeneic host, despite full mismatch [1]. Prevention of rejection of these transplanted stem cells can be ensured by immunodeficiency disease of the host, by immunosuppressive treatment or by immune immaturity of the host when the transplant is performed into a fetal patient [2]. The stem cells from the fetal donor progressively differentiate into T lymphocytes within the environment of host antigens, and give rise to mature T cells exerting their functional activities and restoring immune defenses to the patient [3]. In most cases, the fetal donor and the patient host are fully mismatched at the class I and the class II loci of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). T lymphocytes deriving from the donor stem cells are therefore confronted with HLA-different host cells (monocytes-macrophages, B lymphocytes, NK cells, target cells of various kinds, etc) after they have matured in this HLA-different host environment. This situation provides us with a unique model to study recognition of “self” and “allo” by helper and cytotoxic T cells, as well as the acquisition of tolerance during T cell ontogeny. Positive and negative selection processes are further demonstrated to be separate phenomena, likely to be induced by distinct cell categories.
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References
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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Touraine, JL. et al. (1994). Tolerance to Alloantigens and Recognition for “Allo + X” Induced in Humans by Fetal Stem Cell Transplantation. In: Touraine, J.L., Traeger, J., Bétuel, H., Dubernard, J.M., Revillard, J.P., Dupuy, C. (eds) Rejection and Tolerance. Transplantation and Clinical Immunology, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0802-7_26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0802-7_26
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