Figure 3. Human T cells developing in porcine thymus grafts are specifically tolerant toward porcine donor MHC antigens.
Either human (a) or swine (b) thymic grafts were transplanted under the kidney capsule of recipient NOD/SCID mice together with donor human fetal liver tissue, and isolated human CD34 positive cells from the same fetal liver were injected i.v.. Twenty weeks after transplantation, thymocytes were harvested and used for the assay. MLR was performed using third party human stimulators and stimulators expressing third party or donor SLA. Human T cells developing in porcine thymus grafts (SLAdd) showed markedly reduced MLR responses against SLAdd (DD) stimulators (b) compared to SLAcc (CC) or allogeneic human (Allogeneic Human) stimulators. One representative result from each of 2 SW/HU and 2 HU/HU individual mice is shown.