Over 130 000 patients in the United States alone need a life-saving organ transplant. Genetically modified porcine organs could resolve the donor organ shortage, but human xenoreactive antibodies destroy pig cells and are the major barrier to clinical application of xenotransplantation. The objective of this study was to determine whether waitlisted patients possess preformed antibodies to swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) class II, homologs of the class II human leukocyte antigens (HLA).
Sera from people currently awaiting solid organ transplant were tested for IgG binding to class II SLA proteins when expressed on mammalian cells. Pig fibroblasts were made positive by transfection with the class II transactivator (CIITA). As a second expression system, transgenes encoding the alpha and beta chains of class II SLA were transfected into Human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells.
Human sera containing IgG specific for class II HLA molecules exhibited greater binding to class II SLA positive cells than to SLA negative cells. Sera lacking antibodies against class II HLA showed no change in binding regardless of the presence of class II SLA. These antibodies could recognize either SLA-DR or SLA-DQ complexes.
Class II SLA proteins may behave as xenoantigens for people with humoral immunity towards class II HLA molecules.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 December 2023.
All research outputs
#8,264,793
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from Transplantation
#2,293
of 7,577 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#156,703
of 448,812 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Transplantation
#37
of 83 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 66th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,577 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 448,812 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 64% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 83 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.
