title: Beneficial effect of preoperative mycophenolate mofetil in murine corneal transplantation.
abstract: To investigate the effect of preoperative mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) on allograft survival in a murine corneal transplantation model. Corneal grafting was performed from Brown Norway to Lewis rats. Groups were divided as follows: Rats that received syngeneic or allogeneic grafts without therapy served as controls. MMF treatment was either started 7 days prior to transplantation and continued for 14 postoperative days (POD) or started at the day of corneal grafting until POD 14. MMF (20 mg/kg) administered postoperatively had no significant beneficial effect on corneal graft survival when compared with controls. However, the group receiving 40 mg/kg MMF postoperatively showed a statistically significant prolonged graft survival. A 1-week preoperative administration of 20 mg/kg MMF allowed superior graft survival. Priming the immune system of corneal transplant recipients preoperatively with MMF proved to be a beneficial therapeutic regimen for prolonging corneal allograft survival in rats.
authors.affiliation: Eye Clinic, Heinrich-Heine University, Moorenstr. 5, D-40 225 Duesseldorf, Germany. reis@uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reis
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Spelsberg
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reinhard
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Braunstein
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Godehardt
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sundmacher
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003315:Cornea / Q000473:pathology; D016039:Corneal Transplantation; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009173:Mycophenolic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D051381:Rats; D011914:Rats, Inbred BN; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D009173:Mycophenolic Acid