by Joachim Andrassy  and Antje Habicht

Received: 05 November 2018;  Published: 27 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902070

In recent years, the potential of hematopoietic stem cells, regulatory T-cells, and mesenchymal stem cells have brought about a variety of clinical tolerance trials. Every approach has yielded promising results; however, the riddle of transplant tolerance has not been solved as of yet. The results of the ongoing trials in this field will provide additional information regarding the risks and benefits of these therapy approaches.

by Scott A. Campbell  , Matthew Hubert  , Janyne Johnson  , Nicole Salamon  and Peter E. Light

Received: 12 March 2019;  Published: 26 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902069

Background: One of the goals of clinical islet transplantation is to achieve a single-donor transplant that is dependent on obtaining enough quality β cell mass from one donor pancreas. Human islets are routinely cultured prior to transplantation, and pro-survival factors such as GLP-1 analogues have been reported to maintain β cell mass and survival. Interestingly, human islets may secrete GLP-1 and they also express the enzyme DPP4 that proteolytically cleaves GLP-1 into an inactive form. The aim of [...]

by Natasha Hui Jin Ng  , Wei Xuan Tan  , Ye Xin Koh  and Adrian Kee Keong Teo

Received: 11 March 2019;  Published: 21 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902068

The ability to routinely and reproducibly obtain purified human islets has facilitated substantial progress in providing a safe and reliable treatment option for adult patients of type 1 diabetes. The availability of human islets for basic research has also significantly improved the understanding of the biology of human islets, and consequently the pathophysiology of diabetes. Presently, about 70 human islet isolation centers are known to exist around the world, in addition to multiple coordinated human islet dist [...]

by Hong Chee Chew  , Ling Gao  , Jeanette E. Villaneuva  , Aoife Doyle  , Mark Hicks  , Andrew Jabbour  , Kumud K. Dhital  and Peter S. Macdonald

Received: 09 March 2019;  Published: 18 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902067

Background: Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) utilises 1.2-1.5L of donor blood (DB) with a target perfusate haematocrit of 25% to reanimate the donor heart. Limitations to current practise include small donor size and donor anaemia which can impact on the recovery of these hearts. Furthermore, in donation after circulatory death (DCD), blood collection may delay delivery of preservation solutions resulting in longer warm ischaemic times for the heart and other organs. Banked blood (BB) is a potential alternative [...]

by Katerina G. Oikonomou  and Sarah Taimur

Received: 14 February 2019;  Published: 17 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902066

In non-endemic regions of the world, human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is an uncommon pathogen in the transplant host, but can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Careful assessment for risk factors, targeted screening and heightened awareness of the clinical presentation of HTLV-1 associated disease is necessary for timely recognition and management in the transplant host. The use of antiretroviral agents in the management of symptomatic disease due to HTLV-1 remains controversial [...]

by Sheila Krishnan  , Chadi Hage  , Raymond Coakley  , David van Duin  and Leonard Jason Lobo

Received: 18 February 2019;  Published: 10 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902065

Lung transplant recipients are at greater risk of respiratory viral infections as compared to other solid organ transplant recipients due to constant exposure of the allograft to the external environment. There are no standardized methods for surveillance, prevention, or treatment of these infections despite their association with increased morbidity and mortality. Various studies have linked respiratory viral infections with acute cellular rejection and chronic allograft dysfunction, and emerging data indicates a [...]

by Gopalakrishnan Loganathan  , Michael G. Hughes  , Gregory L. Szot  , Kate E. Smith  , Abid Hussain  , Daniel R. Collins  , Michael L. Green  , Francis E. Dwulet  , Stuart K. Williams  , Klearchos K. Papas  , Robert C. McCarthy  and Appakalai N. Balamurugan

Received: 29 March 2019;  Published: 24 May 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902064

Background: Purified bacterial collagenase and protease enzymes are commonly used to recover human islets from clinical grade pancreata for subsequent clinical islet transplantation. The high cost of purified enzymes can be prohibitive for recovering human islets from research pancreata used for translational research or pre-clinical studies. In this study, we successfully isolated islets from human research pancreata using enriched collagenase products supplemented with BP Protease (DE Collagenase 800 or Collagena [...]

by Amanda B. Cooper  , Stephen M. Downs  , Nicholas J Skill  , Richard S. Mangus  , Chandrashekhar A. Kubal  and Mary A. Maluccio

Received: 18 March 2019;  Published: 13 May 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902063

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a lethal tumor, for which liver resection and transplantation are the only potentially curative treatments. No prospective, randomized study has compared survival in patients with compensated cirrhosis after the two operations Methods: Decision analysis modeling is an objective method to quantify risks and benefits. This study aimed to use decision analysis with a Markov model to estimate the impact of liver transplant and surgical resection on survival for patients wit [...]

by Gianluca Donatini  , Sébastien Giraud  , Jean-Louis Kraimps  , Jérôme Danion  and Thierry Hauet

Received: 08 April 2019;  Published: 15 April 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902062

Pancreatic islet transplantation represents an effective therapy with lower morbidity for patients carriers of type 1 diabetes compared to whole pancreas transplantation. Although complete insulin independence is usually not achieved it allows control of glycemia balance reducing the risk of severe hypoglycaemia events and impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia. Recent trials had demonstrated islet transplantation to be more effective than current medical treatment and improvements in outcomes also have been reported [...]

by Richard Cheng  and Jon Kobashigawa

Received: 23 January 2019;  Published: 09 April 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.transplant.1902061

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) limits long-term survival after heart transplantation. CAV with discrete or tubular lesions can be treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with high procedural success. Revascularization with balloon angioplasty, bare-metal stents, and first-generation drug-eluting stents has been associated with high and unacceptable restenosis rates. However, second-generation drug-eluting stents are associated with favorable stent and lesion patency. Stent and lesion patency now [...]