Title:

B lymphocyte–directed immunotherapy promotes long-term islet allograft survival in nonhuman primates

Authors:

Chengyang Liu^1,5, Hooman Noorchashm^1,5, Jennifer A Sutter², Mina Naji², Eline Luning Prak², Jean Boyer², Taryn Green¹, Michael R Rickels³, John E Tomaszewski², Brigitte Koeberlein¹, Zhonglin Wang¹, Michelle E Paessler⁴, Ergun Velidedeoglu¹, Susan Y Rostami¹, Ming Yu¹, Clyde F Barker¹ and Ali Naji¹

¹Department of Surgery; ²Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; ³Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA; ⁴Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA; ⁵These authors contributed equally to this work. Correspondence should be addressed to A.N. (Ali.Naji@uphs.upenn.edu).

Source:

Nature Medicine

Year:

2007 Nov; Volume: 13(11)

Abstract:

We found that an induction immunotherapy regimen consisting of rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (Thymoglobulin) and the monoclonal antibody to CD20 rituximab (Rituxan) promoted long-term islet allograft survival in cynomolgus macaques maintained on rapamycin monotherapy. B lymphocyte reconstitution after rituximab-mediated depletion was characterized by a preponderance of immature and transitional cells, whose persistence was associated with long-term islet allograft survival. Development of donor-specific alloantibodies was abrogated only in the setting of continued rapamycin monotherapy.