Zhou J, Date I, Sakai K, Yoshimoto Y, Furuta T, Asari S, Ohmoto T
Department of Neurological Surgery, Okayama University Medical School, Japan.
Brain Res. 1993 Sep 3;621(1):155-60. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(93)90313-c.
In this study, the immunosuppressive effect of 15-deoxyspergualin (DSG) on the survivability of rat embryonic dopaminergic neurons grafted into the lateral ventricle of adult mice was investigated. DSG was administered daily in dose of 5 mg/kg for 2 weeks postgrafting, commencing on the day of transplantation, in the immunosuppressant-treated groups. Animals were then allowed to survive for 2 to 4 weeks after transplantation. Histological analysis revealed that most of transplanted rat fetal neural tissue was destroyed and scavenged in 2 weeks after transplantation in the non-immunosuppressed group. However, a large number of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive grafted neurons survived and grew postgrafting in the brain of the host administered with DSG even if they suffered from T lymphocyte infiltrations visualized by cytotoxic T cell immunohistochemistry. The results thus indicated that DSG is an potent immunosuppressant in neural transplantation as well as in transplantation of other organs in animals. It seems to be able to block, at least in part, the ability of mature specific cytotoxic T cells to lyse their targets.
