al-Abdullah I H, Kumar A M, al-Adnani M S, Abouna G M
Department of Organ Transplantation and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Safat.
Transplantation. 1991 May;51(5):967-71. doi: 10.1097/00007890-199105000-00007.
In vitro pretreatment of islets of Langerhans with deoxyguanosine (dGuo) has been shown to be effective for the prolongation of islet allograft survival in rats. [This study evaluates the effect of pretreatment of islets with dGuo transplanted into CsA-treated recipients.] Transplantation of dGuo-treated islets from Wistar rats into diabetic hooded (PVG) rats resulted in 36% graft survival without immunosuppression (dGuo-group) and 89% islet survival after a short course of cyclosporine was used in recipients (dGuo + CsA group). In contrast, transplantation of untreated islets into rats without immunosuppression (controls) and with CsA (CsA group) immunosuppression resulted in 0 and 56% survival, respectively. The differences in graft survival between dGuo versus control group (P less than 0.001), (dGuo + CsA) versus control group (P less than 0.0001), and CsA versus control group (P less than 0.002) are statistically significant. Donor-strain skin-graft challenge failed to induce rejection of transplanted normoglycemic rats in (dGuo) and (dGuo + CsA) groups. The results indicate that a state of immunologic unresponsiveness may have been induced in the recipients of dGuo-treated islets, and further treatment with CsA synergistically prolongs islet survival in fully mismatched rats.