A while back when teaching my immunology class about transplantation I told the
students about the attempts to produce human complement regulator transgenic
pigs to avoid alternate pathway mediated hyperacute rejection of their organs by
human recipients. A very astute student asked why the pig valves which are
routinely used for valve replacement operations are not rejected by this
mechanism. Anybody out there got any explanations?
Bob Scibienski
UC Davis
