Long-term acceptance of composite tissue allografts through mixed chimerism and CD28 blockade

Abstract

Although efforts have been made to induce tolerance to composite tissue allografts in adult recipients, thus far, none have succeeded without toxic, myeloablative host preconditioning. Our demonstration that tolerance can be achieved with minimal preconditioning provides a rationale for application to large animals and humans and suggests that although composite tissue allografts may have a significant skin component (and are therefore felt to be highly antigenic), protocols used to induce tolerance to organ transplants may be equally applicable to composite-tissue allotransplantation.