Community series in Progress of Allo- and Xeno-transplantation Facilitating the Initial Xeno-Kidney and Islet Clinical Trials, volume II


Book Description

Owing to the availability of more advanced genetically engineered pigs, more immunological and physiological barriers have been overcome. With the results of pig organ xenotransplantation steadily improving, consideration is now given to the first clinical trials of xenotransplantation. The first step is kidneys, but possibilities also exist in pig islet transplantation for patients with diabetes.







Clinical Xenotransplantation


Book Description

This title provides an illuminating examination of the current state of xenotransplantation – grafting or transplanting organs or tissues between members of different species – and how it might move forward into the clinic. To be sure, this is a critical topic, as a major problem that remains worldwide is an inadequate supply of organs from deceased human donors, severely limiting the number of organ transplants that can be performed each year. Based on presentations given at a major conference on xenotransplantation, this title includes important views from many leading experts who were invited to present their data and opinions on how xenotransplantation can advance into the clinic. Attention was concentrated on pig kidney and heart transplantation as it is in regard to these organs that most progress has been made. Collectively, these chapters effectively highlight the many advantages of xenotransplantation to patients with end-stage organ failure, thereby encouraging the mapping of a concrete pathway to clinical xenotransplantation. The book is organized across 22 chapters, beginning with background information on clinical and experimental xenotransplantation. Following this are discussions addressing how pigs can be genetically engineered for their organs to be resistant to the human immune response through deletion of pig xenoantigens, and the insertion of ‘protective’ human transgenes. Subsequent chapters analyze complications that arise in practice, comparing allotransplant and xenotransplant rejection. The selection of the ideal patients for the first clinical trials is discussed. Finally, the book concludes with an analysis on the regulatory, economic, and social aspects of this research, including FDA perspectives and the sensitive, psychosocial factors regarding allotransplantation and xenotransplantation. A major and timely addition to the literature, Clinical Xenotransplantation will be of great interest to all researchers, physicians, and academics from other disciplines with an interest in xenotransplantation.




Xenotransplantation


Book Description

Recently, remarkable progress has been made in the area of preclinical xenotransplantation experiments. Surprisingly, a heterotopic heart from the gene-editing pig continued to beat for almost 2.5 years, when implanted in the monkey abdomen, and a pig life-supporting kidney could also function for over 1.3 years in monkeys. Concerning islets, islets from gene-editing pigs could work for more than one year in monkeys. It is noteworthy that one group reported a survival of adult wild-type pig islets of over 600 days. On the other hand, the progress in these preclinical trials strongly affected not only the xenotransplantation study itself but regeneration studies to use pigs as a scaffold to foster human induced pluripotent stem cells.




Immunology for Surgeons


Book Description

An understanding of the complex workings of the immune system is essential for all surgeons. Immune responses play a crucial part in the way human body reacts to infection and trauma. Immunology for Surgeons contains a high-level discussion of this difficult clinical area. The text looks at tumor immunobiology and immunotherapy as well as the worldwide results of various clinical trials. The topics discussed focus on relevant immunological and molecular biological trends for future treatment of complex surgical disease. The main objective of the text is to render a difficult area accessible for the postgraduate surgical trainee and established surgeon who is interested in immunology.




Transplantation Surgery


Book Description

It is like a fairy story! Or at least a beautiful epic, a truly significant page in the history of medicine, a staggering scene in which several actors come into play, both fundamentalists and clinical practitioners, eager to place all these new developments at the disposal of those suffering from ill health. Everyone is passionate about their work, be it providing new knowledge or perfecting new therapeutic methods. Man has always been fascinated by the possibility of replacing a damaged organ with a healthy one. Several attempts have been made over the centuries, and some miracles have been reported, such as those of Saint Damien and Saint Come as illustrated by Fra Angelico. The modern saga, however, started more modestly on the mouse. It is on the mouse that the first tissue group was discovered; yet the study of human tissue groups could only be carried out on a human. One human must be subjected to the thousands of tests that have enabled us to unravel the extraordinary complexity of the HLA system.




Stem Cells


Book Description

Stem cell biology has drawn tremendous interest in recent years as it promises cures for a variety of incurable diseases. This book deals with the basic and clinical aspects of stem cell research and involves work on the full spectrum of stem cells isolated today. It also covers the conversion of stem cell types into a variety of useful tissues which may be used in the future for transplantation therapy. It is thus aimed at undergraduates, postgraduates, scientists, embryologists, doctors, tissue engineers and anyone who wishes to gain some insight into stem cell biology. This book is important as it is comprehensive and covers all aspects of stem cell biology, from basic research to clinical applications. It will have 33 chapters written by renowned stem cell scientists worldwide. It will be up-to-date and all the chapters include self-explanatory figures, color photographs, graphics and tables. It will be easy to read and give the reader a complete understanding and state of the art of the exciting science and its applications.




The Organ Thieves


Book Description

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks meets Get Out in this “startling…powerful” (Kirkus Reviews) investigation of racial inequality at the core of the heart transplant race. In 1968, Bruce Tucker, a black man, went into Virginia’s top research hospital with a head injury, only to have his heart taken out of his body and put into the chest of a white businessman. Now, in The Organ Thieves, Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding Tucker’s death and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family’s permission or knowledge. The circumstances surrounding his death reflect the long legacy of mistreating African Americans that began more than a century before with cadaver harvesting and worse. It culminated in efforts to win the heart transplant race in the late 1960s. Featuring years of research and fresh reporting, along with a foreword from social justice activist Ben Jealous, “this powerful book weaves together a medical mystery, a legal drama, and a sweeping history, its characters confronting unprecedented issues of life and death under the shadows of centuries of racial injustice” (Edward L. Ayers, author of The Promise of the New South).




Small Animal Imaging


Book Description

This textbook is a practical guide to the use of small animal imaging in preclinical research that will assist in the choice of imaging modality and contrast agent and in study design, experimental setup, and data evaluation. All established imaging modalities are discussed in detail, with the assistance of numerous informative illustrations. While the focus of the new edition remains on practical basics, it has been updated to encompass a variety of emerging imaging modalities, methods, and applications. Additional useful hints are also supplied on the installation of a small animal unit, study planning, animal handling, and cost-effective performance of small animal imaging. Cross-calibration methods and data postprocessing are considered in depth. This new edition of Small Animal Imaging will be an invaluable aid for researchers, students, and technicians involved in research into and applications of small animal imaging.




Receptor Tyrosine Kinases: Family and Subfamilies


Book Description

This book devotes a chapter to each RTK family and the multiple receptors within each family, thoroughly covering all of the RTKs. The chapters all follow the same structure, presenting this essential information in an accessible and user-friendly format. Each chapter covers one specific family of receptors and begins with a general introduction to that family and a comprehensive discussion of that receptor’s family in development and human disease. Following are in-depth analyses of each family’s receptors with discussions on the gene, protein, ligands, activation, and signaling pathways along with discussion of receptor processing and signal attenuation. Further, cross talk with other receptors systems, post-translational modification and specific unique characteristics to each RTK are discussed. Because it isolates and explains each family, this book is an essential companion volume to Receptor Tyrosine Kinases: Structure, Functions and Role in Human Disease, by the same authors, which talks about RTKs more generally and without the family-by-family detail.




Recent Books