Murine models of transplantation tolerance through mixed chimerism: advances and roadblocks

Organ transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients with end-stage organ failure, but chronic immunosuppression is taking its toll in terms of morbidity and poor efficacy in preventing late graft loss. Therefore, a drug-free state would be desirable where the recipient permanently accepts a donor organ while remaining otherwise fully immunologically competent. Mouse studies unveiled mixed chimerism as an effective approach to induce such donor-specific tolerance deliberately and laid the foundation for a series of clinical pilot trials. Nevertheless, its widespread clinical implementation is currently prevented by cytotoxic conditioning and limited efficacy. Therefore, the use of mouse studies remains an indispensable tool for the development of novel concepts with potential for translation and for the delineation of underlying tolerance mechanisms. Recent innovations developed in mice include the use of pro-apoptotic drugs or regulatory T cell (T-reg) transfer for promoting bone marrow engraftment in the absence of myelosuppression and new insight gained in the role of innate immunity and the interplay between deletion and regulation in maintaining tolerance in chimeras. Here, we review these and other recent advances in murine studies inducing transplantation tolerance through mixed chimerism and discuss both the advances and roadblocks of this approach.