We had previously shown that islets expressing immunosuppressive molecules could effect local protection against allograft rejection in the mouse.
We now show that pig neonatal islet cell clusters transduced with an adenovirus expressing an anti-hCD2 mAb (diliximab) could reduce T cell infiltration when such clusters were transplanted into huSCID mice.
Our previous findings suggested that the local effect was localized to the graft site (not the draining node nor systemically). To investigate this, we switched to the rip-OVA model using OT-I cells, H-2Kb KO, CD11c-DTR and rip-Kb systems and bipolar grafts under the kidney capsule; as such both grafts drain to the same node. We therefore determined which cells were the antigen-presenting cells critical for the graft site.