Therapeutic effect of 15-deoxyspergualin on acute graft rejection detected by 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectrography, and its effect on rat heart transplantation.

We investigated the effect of 15-deoxyspergualin (DSG) on graft rejection, starting administration at the onset of rejection and on the induction of immunologic unresponsiveness. Hearts from WKAH rats were transplanted into the neck of ACI rats. The energy metabolism of the grafted hearts was followed by 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The day that energy metabolism started to fall was defined as the onset of rejection, and intraperitoneal administration of DSG was initiated at 5 mg/kg/day for 15 days from this day. The grafted heart arrested in 2 of 10 rats 9 and 11 days after transplantation, respectively, but the remaining 8 recovered from rejection and 5 of them showed evidence of immunologic unresponsiveness. Of 10 rats treated with DSG from the day of transplantation, only 1 rat showed evidence of unresponsiveness. The initiation of DSG treatment from the onset of rejection resulted in a higher percentage of induction of unresponsiveness. Therefore, DSG was considered to specifically inhibit lymphocyte clone expansion at the onset of rejection. Spleen cells obtained from recipients 7-10 days after the end of DSG treatment were administered to syngeneic ACI rats grafted with WKAH hearts. Graft survival was significantly prolonged, but long-term unresponsiveness could not be transferred. However, immunologic unresponsiveness could be adoptively transferred in 3 of 5 rats receiving spleen cells from syngeneic rats that had recovered from rejection after DSG treatment and had acquired long-term unresponsiveness. These results suggest that suppressor cells are resistant to DSG and are spared and participate in the maintenance of immunologic unresponsiveness.