Survival of foetal spinal allografts into acute lesions of the adult dog spinal cord

In order to compensate the loss of motoneurons caused by neurodegenerative disease or spinal cord injury, solid pieces of foetal canin spinal cord fro m embryos at 30, 35 or 45 days of age were transplanted into focal aspirati on lesions of the lumbar spinal cord of adult dogs. Concomitantly, a 10-15 cm autologous peripheral nerve graft was transplanted adjacent to the foeta l transplant to stimulate and guide axogenesis of the transplanted neurons. This preliminary study shows that foetal spinal neurons can survive for at least four months when grafted in the spinal cord of adult dogs. However, despite immunosuppression to prevent rejection, viable allografts were obse rved in only three out of 8 grafted dogs. The results obtained allow us to conclude that embryo tissue taken between 30 and 35 days of gestation permi ts successful transplantation. The results of this experiment also suggest that for transplantation to work, the traumatism caused by surgery to the s pinal cord must be as minor as possible.