Treatment with donor specific alloantigen 28 days before or on the day of lung transplantation – a comparison in a large animal model

Purpose: Administration of donor-specific alloantigen during transplantation has been shown to induce T-cell regulation and long term transplant tolerance in our large animal model before. In rodents, it was also possible to induce allograft acceptance if the donor-antigen was administered 28 days in advance. Here, we wished to translate this protocol into our lung transplantation model in minipigs and compare it to our already established protocols. Methods: Lung transplantation from MHC-mismatched donors was performed in 41 minipigs. 23 of those animals received donor-splenocytes perioperatively (group1), wher…