Functional human to mouse adipose tissue xenotransplantation
- Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George Street, Suite 334-D, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
1Obesity Research Center, St. Luke's Hospital, New York, New York, USA
2Lenox Hill Hospital and Private Ambulatory Clinic, New York, New York, USA
- (Correspondence should be addressed to V Ablamunits; Email: vitaly.ablamunits{at}yale.edu)
Abstract
White adipose tissue (WAT) produces a number of metabolically important factors and, therefore, some inborn errors of metabolism may potentially be corrected by transplantation of normal allogeneic WAT. To explore the ability of human WAT (HuWAT) to compensate for a missing factor and to induce allogeneic immune response, we created leptin-deficient, immunodeficient mice and transplanted them with either 2.5 or 5 ml HuWAT. Recipient mice showed stable levels of human leptin in circulation, reduced body mass gain, and amelioration of hepatic steatosis. Food consumption and plasma insulin levels were reduced only in recipients of 5 ml WAT. Transfer of 2×107 human mononuclear cells to reject WAT as an allograft was ineffective and resulted only in some reduction of circulating leptin and a limited damage to the WAT grafts followed by the loss of human leukocytes.
- Received in final form 12 September 2011
- Accepted 17 October 2011
- Made available online as an Accepted Preprint 17 October 2011
- © 2012 Society for Endocrinology
