Prolongation of renal allograft survival in DLA tissue-typed beagles after third-party blood transfusions and immunosuppressive treatment.

Significant prolongation of survival of nonrelated DLA-mismatched renal allografts has been obtained in beagle recipients receiving three blood transfusions from nonrelated donors prior to kidney transplantation and immunosuppression after transplantation. Nontransfused DLA-identical or DLA 1 haplotype-different littermates of the transfused dogs were used as controls. Lymphocytotoxic antibodies were formed after the blood transfusions. A quantitative immune reactivity score correlated with graft survival. Low scores prior to transplantation were found in five transfused dogs that did not reject their allografts. High scores prior to transplantation were found in four animals rejecting their graft and in one dog that survived after an abortive rejection episode. The great similarities between the results obtained in this animal model and the observations made in human transplant patients indicate that this model can be utilized for a further analysis of the possibilities of blood transfusions in protecting subsequent renal allografts from immunological rejection.