"Tolerogenic effect" of the liver for a small bowel allograft

A newly developed liver/small bowel transplantation model (LSBTx) was used to investigate the tolerogenic effect of a liver allograft toward a simultaneously transplanted small bowel. Small bowel transplantation (SBTx) under high-dose immunosuppression was compared to LSBTx with a lower FK506 dosage. Syngeneic Lewis [(LEW) to LEW] and two fully allogeneic rat strain combinations (Brown Norway-to-LEW and Dark Agouti-to-LEW) were used. Clinical course and histological findings after SBTx demonstrated a chronic rejection of the small bowel allograft within 100 days. However, after LSBTx long-term acceptance (> 150 days) was achieved after a transient rejection crisis, although initial immunosuppression was significantly lower. Furthermore, indicator heart transplantations demonstrated the induction of donor-specific tolerance in both allogeneic strain combinations. In contrast to other LSBTx rat models, these results reflect observations after human LSBTx, in which the rate of acute and chronic rejection is also significantly lower than after human SBTx.