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Updated: Aug 5, 2026
Heterotopic and Orthotopic Tracheal Transplantation in Mice used as Models to Study the Development of Obliterative Airway Disease
Published on: January 20, 2010
Obliterative lesions in a heterotopic bronchial xenograft model--a preliminary study
U S Salminen1, P K Maasilta, E I Taskinen
1Department of Surgery, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland.
Background:
We further developed our heterotopic pig model of obliterative bronchiolitis to study airway obliteration in xenografts.
Methods:
Four domestic piglets each received 40 bronchial xenografts s.c. from a donor lamb. Piglet X was not immunosuppressed. The other animals received daily oral cyclosporine, 15 mg/kg (XC), or SDZ RAD, 1.5 mg/kg (XR), or both (XCR). Five implants at a time were serially removed from each animal during 17 days for histological assessment.
Results:
In contrast to the grafts of the others, the xenografts of XCR recovered after initial ischemic damage. No epithelial damage (P<0.01) or mural necrosis occurred on day 7. Airway obliteration developed in all, but was significantly delayed in XCR.
Conclusions:
Invariably developing airway obliteration in nontreated xenografts was delayed by immunosuppression, making the model useful, especially in testing the efficacy of immunosuppressive drugs in a xenogeneic system.
