Graft-versus-host disease after brown Norway-to-Lewis and Lewis-to-Brown Norway rat intestinal transplantation under FK506.

In LEW rats treated daily with variable doses of FK506 for 14 days and weekly thereafter, successful intestinal transplantation from fully allogeneic BN donors never was complicated by fatal GVHD. In contrast, with LEW-to-BN transplantation, rejection was difficult to control and GVHD developed after the end of the daily treatment. However, FK506 in high daily doses continued after the initial 14-day course could prevent this GVHD or even reverse it after allowing its onset. Further experiments did not clarify why the BN rat was an "easy" donor and "difficult" recipient. In unaltered animals the lymphocyte population of normal LEW rats had a higher proportion of T cells, fewer B cells, and a lower CD4:CD8 ratio than normal BN rats. However, one-way MLR reactions of the BN and LEW combinations were generally similar in either direction and not affected differently by the addition of FK506 to the medium. The two-way lymphocyte traffic from graft to host lymphoid organs and vice versa also was similar with BN-to-LEW and LEW-to-BN models. The BN rat may be a useful tool to investigate inadequately explained mechanisms of GVHD.