737. Induction of Molecular Chimerism in Rhesus Macaques Reconstituted with Autologous CD34+ Cells Transduced with the Gene Encoding the |[alpha]|(1-3)galactosyltranferase (|[alpha]|GT)

Background: Anti-donor antibodies remain a significant problem in discordant xenotransplantation, and are believed to play a significant role in chronic allograft rejection. We have previously shown that genetic engineering of autologous bone marrow stem cells to induce molecular chimerism can be used to establish B cell tolerance in mice. In this study, we examined whether a similar approach could be used to induce B cell tolerance in Rhesus macaques, a preclinical animal model. To this end, we investigated whether induction of molecular chimerism could be used to affect production of antibodies specific for the carbohydrate epítope Gal1-3Gal1-4GlcNAc-R (Gal).