Graft-versus-host reaction in small-bowel transplantation and possibilities for its circumvention.
To study graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR) in small-bowel transplantation and its underlying mechanisms and to find methods for circumventing GVHR, we used an unidirectional GVHR model in which F1 Lewis (LEW) x Wistar King A (WKA) hybrid rats received small-bowel transplants from either LEW or WKA parent rats. The survival time of F1 hybrid rats that received full-length small-bowel transplantation from LEW and WKA was 16.3+/-2.1 days and 18.2+/-3.4 days, respectively. When one-quarter of LEW small bowel was transplanted to an F1 hybrid recipient, the survival time was significantly longer at 44.0+/-23.4 days compared with rats that had received full-length LEW small-bowel transplantation. The survival time of F1 hybrid rats which received an injection of high-dose (5 x 10(8) cells) LEW or WKA spleen cells was 11.9+/-4.0 days and 13.1+/-3.6 days, respectively. However, when an injection containing a low dose (1 x 108 cells) of LEW spleen cells was used, survival was > 100 days, showing significance compared with the survival of rats receiving the higher dose LEW spleen-cell injection. Both small-bowel transplantation and spleen-cell injection were compared for the effective period of recipient resistance to donor cell or small-bowel transplantation as second challenge. When the F1 rats given a quarter LEW small-bowel transplant as first challenge were treated with a high-dose of spleen cells 30 days after transplantation, they survived for > 30 days without GVHR. F1 rats that were treated with a low-dose LEW spleen-cell injection, followed 30 days later by full LEW small-bowel transplantation, had a survival time of > 100 days. These results indicate that segmental small-bowel transplantation and spleen-cell injection as first challenge may facilitate the prevention of GVHR, resulting in resistance to subsequent immunological challenge.
Watanabe
K
K
First Department of Surgery, Okayama University Medical School, Japan.
Yagi
T
T
Iwagaki
H
H
Kimura
Y
Y
Mitsuoka
N
N
Inagaki
M
M
Tanaka
S
S
Tanaka
N
N
D000818:Animals; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000637:transplantation*; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000166:cytology / Q000637:transplantation; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D016019:Survival Analysis