THE EFFECT OF PERIOPERATIVE PORTAL VENOUS INJECTION OF DONOR SPLEEN-CELLS ON RENAL-ALLOGRAFT SURVIVAL IN DOGS

Preoperative portal venous injection of donor lymphocytes has been sho wn to extend allograft survival in inbred animals. However, the effect of perioperative injection in a large animal model has not been caref ully studied. We examined the effect of perioperative (day 0) donor sp leen cell administration in a canine kidney transplant model using bot h a double-donor transplantation and a single-donor survival study. In the double-donor model, two kidneys from two separate donors were tra nsplanted into a single recipient. Spleen cells obtained from only one of the donors were injected through the portal vein immediately after reperfusion of the allografts. Both allografted kidneys were resected 14 days after transplantation and studied. There was only a slight ce llular infiltrate in the kidney derived from the donor from whom splee n cells had been obtained, whereas a much more extensive cellular infi ltrate as well as edema and hemorrhage were present in the other kidne y. In a survival study of single allografts, the injection of 2 x 10(9 ) spleen cells significantly prolonged the mean survival time (15.0+/- 3.4 days) compared with untreated recipients (6.6+/-2.2 days). Additio n of cyclosporine did not significantly prolong survival in the spleen cell inoculated animals. These findings suggest that perioperative po rtal venous injection of donor cells may be a specific immunosuppressi ve method useful in clinical organ transplantation.