AMPLIFICATION OF SIMIAN RETROVIRAL SEQUENCES FROM HUMAN RECIPIENTS OFBABOON LIVER-TRANSPLANTS

Investigations into the use of baboons as organ donors for human trans plant recipients, a procedure called xenotransplantation, have raised the specter of transmitting baboon viruses to humans and possibly esta blishing new human infectious diseases. Retrospective analysis of tiss ues from two human transplant recipients with end-stage hepatic diseas e who died 70 and 27 days after the transplantation of baboon livers r evealed the presence of two simian retroviruses of baboon origin, simi an foamy virus (SFV) and baboon endogenous virus (BaEV), in multiple t issue compartments. The presence of baboon mitochondrial DNA was also detected in these same tissues, suggesting that xenogeneic ''passenger leukocytes'' harboring latent or active viral infections had migrated from the xenografts to distant sites within the human recipients, The persistence of SFV and BaEV in human recipients throughout the posttr ansplant period underscores the potential infectious risks associated with xenotransplantation.