Future advances in liver transplantation will depend on therapeutic strategies aiming at minimizing or discontinuing immunosuppression. Beyond the definition of treatments that may promote allograft acceptance, a key issue is the identification of biomarkers able to discriminate patients with a “tolerant” profile, in whom immunosuppression could be reduced or even withdrawn, from those with sustained anti-donor reactivity who require the maintenance of chronic immunosuppression. On the basis of reliable biomarkers, anti-rejection treatments could be tailored to reduce the overall incidence of immunosuppression-induced malignancies, infections and cardio-vascular diseases. In line with this objective, we will standardize assays for detailed phenotypic and functional characterization of circulating T lymphocytes as well as quantitative immunohistochemical and genomic analyses of the liver graft itself. The predictive value of these tests will be investigated in patients enrolled in pilot trials for tolerance induction.

Principal investigators: Vincent DONCKIER(MD-PhD) and Patrick STORDEUR (PhD)
Associate investigators: Ligia CRACIUN (PhD), Sarah DREMIER (PhD)
Technical assistant: Tiffany DERNIES

Donckier V, Troisi R, Le Moine A, Ricciardi S, Colle I, Van Vlierberghe H, Toungouz M, Craciun L, Libin M, Praet M, Noens L, Stordeur P, Andrien M, Lambermont M, Gelin M, Bourgeois N, Adler M, De Hemptinne B, Goldman M. Early immunosuppression withdrawal after living donor liver transplantation using post-transplant high dose anti-thymocyte globulin and donor hematopoietic stem cell infusion. Liver Transpl 2006; 12: 1523-1528

Government of the Walloon Region
GSK Biologicals
The Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S - FNRS) and the Télévie Programme
The Belgian Science Policy
The European Commission
The Erasme Fund The Wiener-Anspach Foundation
The Belgian Kid's Fund
The Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation
The Dimitris and Noela Nakos Foundation
Roche Pharmaceuticals, Belgium
Wittycell S.A.S