Tolerance without toxicity? α1-antitrypsin as a novel alternative to immunosuppression

Abstract

. Over the next 50 years, an overwhelming preponderance of pub-lished literature has focused on what goes wrong when AAT levels are low as a function of faulty production due to a variety of genetic mutations – that is, faulty protease inhibitor activity – and the beneficial impact of replacement therapy. However, in recent years, a new paradigm has emerged implicating AAT as a poten -tial key player in immuno regulation across multiple settings, including transplant tol -erance, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and autoimmunity. Several expertly writ-ten and outstanding reviews have recently been published