Survival of discordant renal xenografts up to 3 days assessment of function, light and immunofluorescent microscopy.

This study concerns the pathology of renal xenografts with prolonged survival, achieved by administering Cobra venom factor. Rabbit kidneys transplanted to cats survived up to 72 hours after transplantation when Cobra venom was administered--whereas survival was only about 10 minutes in untreated animals. This marked prolongation of survival--apparently longer than has been reported previously--gave very favourable conditions for the study of morphological changes in the renal xenografts, and we are able to describe the pathology of xenografts after minutes, hours and days of function. There were two principal findings in the group of long-surviving kidneys: :1) immunereactants were only sparsely deposited. 2) the renal tubules were subject to extensive destruction, whereas the vessels were intact. Continuous urine and blood flow through the transplanted kidneys was seen despite morphological changes and deterioration of renal function.