title: Chronic vascular rejection: histologic comparison between two murine experimental models.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We previously developed an experimental model to study chronic vascular rejection (CVR) in mice, the orthotopic aortic allograft. More recently we performed human arterial grafts into SCID/Beige mice reconstituted with human spleen cells. We report herein the differences in CVR lesions.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the first model, recipient mice were C57BL/6 (H-2b), and donor mice were DBA/2 (H-2d). In the second model, terminal branches of the human superior mesenteric artery were transplanted into SCID/Beige mice in the infrarenal aorta. Human immune reconstitution was achieved by a single intraperitoneal injection of 30 x 10(6) human spleen cells. The presence of human lymphocytes and IgG was verified weekly. In both models, the vascular grafts were inserted in the infrarenal aortic position using the sleeve technique. The transplanted mice were sacrificed at 35 days after the operation. The grafts were analyzed by histology and morphometry. The mean intimal thickening was calculated based on transverse sections at 0.1-mm intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Typical CVR lesions developed with neointimal thickening, T-cell infiltration, and smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation in both models. In the mouse aortic model, disappearance of SMC in the media was noted in contrast to human arterial transplants, where the media remained intact.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Other groups have noted that arteries conserve their media in clinical organ transplants. From this point of view, the lesions in the second experimental model (human arteries) better reflect the pathology of CVR in clinical transplantation than the murine aortic transplant model.
authors.affiliation: Inserm U466, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yacoub-Youssef
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Marcheix
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Calise
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Thiers
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Benoist
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Blaes
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ségui
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dambrin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thomsen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002102:Cadaver; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D017538:Mesenteric Artery, Superior / Q000473:pathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D016513:Mice, SCID; D023421:Models, Animal; D014019:Tissue Donors; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous