Xenotransplantation might well provide a revolutionary way of augmenting the function of diseased tissues or replacing organs. This possibility has been advanced by newly acquired understanding of the biological and immunological obstacles to conducting transplantation between species. In Xenotransplantation: Basic Research and Clinical Applications, internationally recognized scientists, clinicians, and technologists review and explain the fundamental molecular and cellular biology that has been applied to the emerging field of transplant immunology and xenotransplantation and what impact these advances might optimally have on medicine and science. The authoritative experts writing here-many of whom made the basic discoveries underlying the recent advances-examine the biological and immunological hurdles to xenotransplantation, illuminating how the immune system interacts with the xenograft, and laying a practical foundation for the use of genetic engineering and animal transplants in the treatment of human disease. Comprehensive and authoritative, Xenotransplantation: Basic Research and Clinical Applications provides basic and clinical investigators, as well as transplant surgeons, with today's most thorough and up-to-date compendium of vital information on all the scientific and technological aspects of xenotransplantation. Front Matter....Pages i-x Molecular and Cellular Hurdles to Xenotransplantation....Pages 1-43 Pathological Responses to Xenotransplantation....Pages 45-55 Natural Xenoreactive Antibodies....Pages 57-71 Specificity of Xenoreactive Natural Antibodies....Pages 73-85 Biophysical Properties of Xenoreactive Natural Antibodies....Pages 87-101 The Origin of Xenoreactive Natural Antibodies....Pages 103-118 Synthesis of Carbohydrate Antigens Recognized by Xenoreactive Antibodies....Pages 119-137 The Complement Barrier to Xenotransplantation....Pages 139-171 Defects and Amplification of Costimulation Across the Species....Pages 173-197 Antibody-Dependent Effects on Cellular Immunity....Pages 199-214 Disordered Regulation of Coagulation and Platelet Activation in Xenotransplantation....Pages 215-246 Current Applications of Cellular Xenografts....Pages 247-263 Back Matter....Pages 265-270 The transplantation of organs, tissues, or cells between individuals of different species has been of increasing interest in recent years because the use of animals as organ and tissue donors as a source of transplants would overcome the severe and worsening shortage of human organs available for transplantation.
