Long-term survival of heterotopic heart transplants in allogenic rats without using anti-rejection drugs after inducing immune tolerance
Yue, X.; Ye, C.; Zhao, P.; Gou, D.
Chinese Medical Journal 108(12): 887-891
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0366-6999 PMID: 8728937 Document Number: 444341
Graft rejection is a baffling problem in organ transplantation which has so far no successful resolution. Present antirejection therapy is expensive, toxic, susceptible to infection, oncogenesis and atherosclerosis. With the use of 2 extremely histoincompatible strains of rats as model, it was found that when six donor splenocytes preconditioned by an extract from the culture medium of streptomyces caespitosus were injected into the host, after 2 weeks immune tolerance heterotopic transplanted donor hearts could survive normally more than 100 days without using any anti-rejection drug. Their mean survival time was 141.4 +/- 2.56 days, while that in the control group was only 11.7 +/- 3.48 days (P < 0.005). Thus, the present research offers some bright prospects in the area of organ transplantation.