The immunologic considerations in head transplantation.

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The immunologic considerations in head transplantation.

Int J Surg. 2017 Jan 24;:

Authors: Hardy MA, Furr A, Barret JP, Barker JH

Abstract
The idea of head transplantation appears at first as unrealistic, unethical, and futile. Here we discuss immunological considerations in head transplantation. In a separate accompanying article we discuss surgical, physiologic, anatomic, and ethical issues concerned in body-to-head transplantation (BHT) [1]. The success of such an unusual allograft, where the donor and the recipient can reject each other, depends on prevention of complex immunologic reactions, especially rejection of the head by the body (graft-vs-host) or probably less likely, the possibility of the head rejecting the total body allograft (host-vs-graft). The technical and immunologic difficulties are enormous, especially since rapid nerve and cord connections and regeneration have not yet been possible to achieve. In this article we begin by briefly reviewing neuro-immunologic issues that may favor BHT such as the blood brain barrier (BBB) and point out its shortcomings. We then touch on the cellular and humoral elements in the brain proper that differ in some respects from those in other organs and in the periphery. The importance of these cellular elements in initiation of allograft rejection and their possible role in allograft acceptance will be emphasized on the basis of data of cellular brain activity found in studies of autoimmune and degenerative brain diseases. Understanding some of these elements in neuro-immunobiology, a growing clinical and scientific field, will have major implications for planning, development, and execution of both experimental and eventually, clinical BHT.

PMID: 28130190 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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