title: Intragraft delivery of 16, 16-dimethyl PGE2 induces donor-specific tolerance in rat cardiac allograft recipients.
abstract: The stable prostaglandin E2 analogue, 16,16-dimethyl PGE2 (di-M-PGE2) was continuously infused by osmotic pump directly into rat heterotopic cardiac allografts. Intragraft delivery of 20 micrograms/kg/day di-M-PGE2 for 2 weeks completely prevented graft rejection for more than 150 days (n = 10), while untreated Buffalo recipients rejected Lewis cardiac allografts within 8 days after transplantation (mean survival time = 7.4 +/- 0.5 days, n = 5). When given for only 1 week, 20 micrograms/kg/day had a partial effect, since 60% of recipients accepted grafts long-term and 40% experienced rejection by day 14 (n = 5). In contrast, systemic intravenous administration of 20 micrograms/kg/day di-M-PGE2 for 2 weeks could not prolong graft survival (MST = 7.0 +/- 0.0 days, n = 3), and the higher dose of 200 micrograms/kg/day resulted in death by day 2 (n = 5). Long-term BUF recipients of LEW cardiac allografts accepted LEW donor strain skin grafts for more than 35 days while rejecting third-party Wistar Furth skin grafts in a normal fashion (MST = 7.3 +/- 0.5 days, n = 3), indicating the induction of donor-specific tolerance. Long-surviving LEW cardiac allografts retransplanted into naive BUF recipients were rejected within 7 days (MST = 6.7 +/- 0.5 days, n = 3), indicating no change in graft immunogenicity. Therefore, a 14-day infusion of di-M-PGE2 directly into a strongly MHC-mismatched cardiac allograft uniformly has resulted in long-term engraftment and the development of recipient donor-specific tolerance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kamei
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Callery
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Flye
mesh_terms: D015064:16,16-Dimethylprostaglandin E2 / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D015064:16,16-Dimethylprostaglandin E2