Experience with islet immunoalteration in dogs: in vitro and in vivo studies.

In an attempt to prolong canine islet allograft survival, in the presence of minimal or no recipient immunosupression, two methods of islet immunoalteration were utilized prior to transplantation. With or without administration of subimmunosuppressive doses of cyclosporin A (CSA) to recipients, treatment of islets with anti-class II monoclonal antibody (moab) and complement (C) resulted in prolongation of allograft survival when treatment was combined with a culture period of 7 days. Transplantation of ultraviolet light (UV) irradiated, 24 hour cultured islets into recipients of subimmunosuppressive doses of CSA also resulted in modest prolongation of allograft survival.