The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vol 80, 125-128, Copyright © 1980 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Western Thoracic Surgical Association
Heart and kidney transplantation using total lymphoid irradiation and donor bone marrow in mongrel dogs
DR Kahn, JH Dufek, R Hong, WL Caldwell, FJ Thomas, DR Kolenda, DK Swanson and RA Struble
Heart and kideny allografts showed markedly prolonged survival in unrelated
mongrel dogs following total lymphoid irradiation (TLI) and donor bone
marrow without any other immunosuppression. In every animal the heart
survived longer than the kidney; genetic disparity was ruled out, since the
heart and kidney from the same donor were placed into one recipient.
Placing the kidney allograft in the abdomen with the bone marrow given
intraperitoneally doubled kidney survival over placement in the neck, but
heart survival was equally prolonged in the abdomen or neck. Splenectomy
before TLI or after TLI, but just before transplantation, almost completely
eliminated the prolonged survival of both heart and kidney allografts. Thus
there is suggestive evidence from the work of Slavin and his colleagues and
from our study that TLI plus bone marrow from the donor may be valuable for
transplantation in man, particularly heart transplantation.