[The allogeneic liver transplantation. II. Immunological examinations in pigs (author's transl)].

Although pig liver allograft induces a regular cellular immune response the transplanted live shows only mild injection or can be accepted. Long term survivors show a reduced cellular immunity in vitro involving the lack of donor-specific memory cells and the development of blocking antibodies. These immunoglobins are mainly considered to mediate the increased survival time of the grafted liver. They show anti-Ia-like specificities and their induction is favoured by the particular Ia- and SD-antigen pattern of the liver tissue. The immunological status observed in liver-allografted pigs is comparable to the active enhancement. In terms of morphological, functional and immunological changes the clinical liver transplantation shows striking similarities to the experimental animal model with pigs. The predominant, non-immunological complications could be overcome in the past few years so that the one-year survival rate was increased to 50%. The good survival rate and the low rejection risk due to the immunological peculiarity of the liver seem to justify the clinical application of the liver transplantation in cases of severe liver disorders which cannot be treated by conventional clinical methods.