In collaboration with the department of Orthopedic Surgery of Hôpital Erasme, Zhanzuo Li and Alain Le Moine successfully created a mouse model of limb transplantation in which they demonstrated that the bone marrow from the transplanted limb provide a source of stem cells which differentiate into lymphocytes in the thymus of the transplant recipient. This model is currently used to explore the possibility to induce tolerance to limb allografts using a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies. The first part of this work is published in the March 27 issue of Transplantation, the official journal of the Transplantation Society. Besides, The group of Alain Le Moine, MD-PhD, is supported by the Nakos Foundation (USA) and the Walloon Region to develop innovative protocols which would allow limb transplantation in absence of immunosuppression.

Related reference: Li Z, Benghiat FS, Kubjak C, Schuind F, Goldman M, Le Moine A. Donor T-cell development in host thymus after heterotopic limb transplantation in mice. Transplantation 2007 ; 83 : 815-818. View Abstract