Thomas Wekerle

Tel.: +43-1-40400-5621
Fax: +43-1-40400-6782

thomas.wekerle@meduniwien.ac.at

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SFB-Project F23-10

Hematopoietic chimerism for the induction of tolerance

SFB co-workers: Nina Pilat (Ph.D. student), Christoph Klaus (Ph.D. student), Martina Gattringer (diploma student)

The induction of chimerism through the transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells has the potential to establish robust tolerance towards antigens expressed on the transplanted cells.

The therapy of organ transplant recipients could be improved by the development of clinically feasible protocols inducing durable tolerance. Cellular hematopoietic macrochimerism, established through the transplantation of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells, induces lasting tolerance in various transplantation models and notably also in a small clinical series of selected kidney transplant patients. The routine clinical application of this approach is however prevented by the toxicity of currently available conditioning regimens. Several concepts for tolerance induction in allergy have been described. Since they are associated with substantial limitations, more robust tolerance strategies are needed.

Our SFB project aims to develop experimental tolerance protocls for application in organ transplantation and allergy.