Activation of porcine hepatic microvascular sinusoidal endothelial cells in pig-to-human liver xenotransplantation.

THE ROLE of the endothelium in mediating rejection in discordant xenotransplantation is currently being defined. The literature has focused on cardiac and renal models of xenotransplantation, and the aortic endothelial cell (AEC) has become the prototypical cell for in vitro studies. The assumption that all EC behave similarly has never been validated. A recent study demonstrated that although cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (CMEC) and AEC behaved similarly, there were differences in comparison to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The purpose of this study is to identify the early cytokine response of PHSEC to human serum in an in vitro model of pig-to-human discordant liver xenotransplantation.