Functional cooperation of xenoproteins after hamster-to-rat liver transplantation: With particular reference to hamster C3 and secretory component for rat IgA.

Long-term survival after hamster-to-rat liver xenotransplantation has provided the opportunity to study the posttransplantation source of major serum proteins and the functional consequences of several different receptor-ligand interactions, where one or the other is a xenogeneic protein. We report here that serum albumin, α-1-antitrypsin, complement component 3, and other acute phase reactants switch from recipient to donor origin during the first week after transplantation while serum immunoglobulins remain largely that of recipient. Despite the disparate source of complement (hamster) and immunoglobulins (rat), these two proteins were able to cooperate effectively to produce lysis of sheep red blood cells. Moreover, rat IgA was successfully processed by hamster hepatocytes and biliary epithelial cells, being present in the bile of successful liver xenograft recipients within one day after transplantation. The ability of these liver xenograft recipients to survive long-term in conventional and viral-free animal facilities without grossly obvious morbidity or unusual susceptibility to stress, suggests that xenogeneic proteins are able to successfully interact with several different physiologic systems in the hamster-to-rat combination.