Surgical technique for vascularized thymus transplantation in mice

Traditionally, mouse nonvascularized thymus implants have been used to inve stigate various aspects of thymus function. However, these grafts are easil y damaged by ischemia and fail to reproduce the normal anatomy of the thymu s, In addition, the function of these grafts has not been fully examined. W e have recently developed a vascularized thymus transplant model in mice. T he donor operation consists of isolating the right lobe of the thymus and c reating a single vascular pathway. In the recipient surgery, end-to-side an astomoses between donor brachycephalic artery and recipient right common ca rotid artery, and between donor superior caval vein and recipient right ext ernal jugular vein, were performed, We performed 10 consecutive isografts i n BALB/c mice with a success rate of 90%, The thymus grafts had a normal hi stology and function. This study illustrates that it is technically possibl e to transplant a mouse vascular thymus graft. This model has several advan tages that make it a useful tool to study many aspects of thymus function. We plan to use this model further to study the potential for induction of t olerance by thymus grafts. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.