Retransplantation of murine skin allografts: Assessment of treatment effects on the allograft in the absence of effects on the host

Abstract

In transplantation techniques previously described it was impossible to separate the effects of immunosuppressive treatments on the host from the effects directed at the allograft itself. The skin allograft retransplantation technique described here allows one to assess changes in the immunogenicity of the allograft generated in the primary recipient but assessed on a second untreated host. The skin allograft is parked on a primary recipient and then retransplanted with a thin margin of recipient tissue to a second host. Data obtained from this model shows that passenger leukocytes do not influence skin allograft survival times. Enhancing alloantisera used in the primary host was shown to cause prolonged graft survival in the untreated second recipient. Using this model the effects of immunosuppressive or immunostimulatory treatments directed at the graft itself can be assessed.