Carbohydrates in transplantation.

Carbohydrate materials have become increasingly utilized in transplantation and cell/tissue engineering within the past year. This has been well documented in recent applications of immobilized or soluble alpha-galactosyl epitopes (i.e. oligosaccharides with a terminal Galalpha1-3Gal sequence) in preventing hyperacute rejection in pig-to-primate xenotransplantation. In addition, alpha-galactosyl polymers have been shown to exhibit much greater activity (up to 10(4) times) than alpha-galactosyl monomers in inhibiting the binding of anti-galactosyl antibodies to pig kidney epithelial cells and assisting in the prevention of cytotoxicity in human serum.