Clinical Intestinal Transplantation: New Perspectives and Immunologic Considerations 1 1This study was supported in part by Project Grant No. DK 29661 from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.

Abstract

These results demonstrate that longterm rehabilitation similar to that with the other kinds of organ allografts is achievable with all three kinds of intestinal transplant procedures, that the morbidity and mortality is still too high for their widespread application, and that the liver is significantly but marginally protective of concomitantly engrafted intestine. Although none of the endpoints were markedly altered by donor leukocyte augmentation (and chimerism) with bone marrow, establishment of the safety of this adjunct procedure opens the way to further immune modulation strategies that can be added to the augmentation protocol.