Orthotopic skin graft survival in rats that have harbored skin implants in the anterior chamber of the eye.

Allogeneic tissue implantation to the anterior chamber of the eye indicated that the host response varies with the size of the implant. Small implants (0.5 mm2) placed in the anterior chamber prolonged the survival of subsequent orthotopic skin allografts across major histocompatibility differences. In contrast, large implants (2.0 mm2) accelerated the rejection of specific skin grafts. The observed delay in graft rejection of small implant-bearing rats was specific to the implant donor, since the third-party unrelated skin grafts on these animals showed neither increase nor decrease in survival times.