Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
TRANSGENIC APPROACHES FOR THE REDUCTION IN EXPRESSION OF
GALa(1,3)GAL FOR XENOTRANSPLANTATION
The major barrier to clinically successful xenotransplantation is the lack of effective therapies aimed at eliminating antibody and complement -dependent hyperacute rejection. This review examines transgenic strategies to eliminate or reduce expression of the major pig to human xenoantigen Galalpha(1,3)Gal such that the epitope is no longer recognized by natural human antibodies, by the use of glycosidases and/or glycosyltransferases that can competitively and effectively inhibit the activity of the alpha1,3galactosyltransferase gene and thereby eliminate the xenoantigen Galalpha(1,3)Gal.