Preventing human CD8 + cytotoxic T lymphocyte–mediated cytotoxicity against swine endothelial cells by overexpression of human decoy Fas antigen

Although the birth of homozygous α1, 3 galactosyltransferase gene-knockout pigs raised hopes for an imminent breakthrough in the prevention in the antibody-mediated rejection of pig to human discordant xenotransplants, human CD8 + cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)–mediated killing may represent a new immunological barrier to long-term survival in xenograft recipients. In this study, we demonstrated that the cytotoxicity of human CD8 + CTL against swine endothelial cells (SEC) is highly detrimental and mediated at least in part by the Fas/FasL pathway. To prevent this CTL-mediated xenocytotoxicity, we overexpressed the human decoy Fas antigen, which does not contain a death domain in its cytoplasmic region, by means of binding competition with endogenous pig Fas antigen on SEC for the common ligand, human FasL. Furthermore, we generated a membrane-bound form of human FasL that cannot be cleaved by a putative metalloproteinase to produce a soluble form, which was assessed as an inhibitor of CTL cytotoxicity. Both human decoy Fas and membrane-bound FasL were effective to prevent CTL-mediated killing, suggesting that these novel molecules may represent a step forward toward preventing CD8 + CTL-mediated xenograft rejection. The combined expression of both molecules may be more beneficial to protect xenograft cells.