title: Immunological treatment with low dosage ciclosporin in rat liver allotransplantation.
abstract: Ciclosporin (CsA) was administered subcutaneously at a dose of 3 mg/kg body weight/day from the day of operation to 14 days of liver allotransplantation in ACI rat (RT1a) to LEW rat (RT1(l) strain combination. All LEW recipients of ACI liver transplants without immunosuppressive treatment had severe rejection and expired within 12 days. In contrast, 7 out of 9 recipients in the same strain combination with temporary CsA treatment survived indefinitely. Histologically, widespread cellular infiltration and massive hepatocyte necrosis were evident upon autopsy of the recipients without CsA treatment. In contrast, in the surviving rats of the CsA-treated group, mononuclear cell infiltration was restricted to the periportal field and hepatocytes appeared to be normal at 14 days posttransplant. CsA concentrations in whole blood were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The trough levels were 788 +/- 48, 621 +/- 76 and 546 +/- 52 ng/ml, at 5, 10 and 14 days posttransplant, respectively. We concluded that this relatively low-dose subcutaneous administration of CsA offered adequate immunosuppression in rat liver allotransplantation in this strain combination.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Surgery, Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Asonuma
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uemoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Utsunomiya
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ozawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashida
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Inui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001706:Biopsy; D003524:Cyclosporins / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013534:Survival; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D003524:Cyclosporins