Corneal Transplantation and Beyond
Victor L. Perez, Ophthalmology, Foster Center for Ocular Immunology at Duke Eye Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States
DisclosureBlock: Victor L. Perez, None
Description
Transplantation and acceptance of allogeneic tissue in the eye is what every transplant immunologist and surgeon wants to understand. In fact, corneal transplantation is the most common solid organ transplant performed in the United States and immune response to these can lead to new discovery in tolerance induction and immune-modulatory approaches to other allogeneic transplanted tissue as well.
In contrast to other solid organ transplants, the eye provides a unique opportunity to have access to the transplanted tissue and assess readily clinically survival end-points, develop novels way of visualizing immune responses to allo-antigens, build pre-clinical models to understand immune mechanisms of rejection and deliver novel immune-therapies to prevent these and induce tolerance.
In this session, we will exploit our models to visualize immune responses in vivo, which we have used to understand mechanisms of immune responses to allo-antigens in the eye, especially in the context of high risk corneal vascularized corneal transplant, which represent a model to other solid organ transplants. Moreover, in the context of other allotransplants performed in the eye, that include stem cells, understanding inflammatory responses will also be reviewed. In total, we believe that the development of novel approaches to regulate specific local immune- early after transplantation is an innovative approach to regulate ocular allo-immune responses and prevent long-termed rejection by exploiting the immune-regulatory responses of the eye to induce immune-tolerance to transplant rejection reactions.
