Pancreas transplantation in the rat using Lee's technique: a reliable model in experimental microsurgery

Numerous unresolved problems, both technical and immunological, in pancreas transplantation stimulate experimental studies. Dogs have been routinely used in experimental studies but today rats are more commonly used. However, pancreas transplantation in the rat presents complex technical problems and requires a good knowledge of microsurgical techniques. In 1983 Squifflet undertook an experimental study aimed at evaluating the technical aspects of pancreas transplantation in the rat and calculating the success rates using different methods. The comparison of four methods revealed to our surprise that 100% of the rats operated on using Lee's technique had complications, with a 0% survival rate. In our study we report our experience using Lee's technique which we had the opportunity of mastering directly under the supervision of Professor Lee. We performed 100 pancreas transplantations using Lee's technique and divided our study in two phases. In the first phase we performed 70 pancreas transplantations and overall survival, after 1 week, was 42 rats (60%). In the second phase on 30 rats diabetes was induced by administering 70 mg/kg of streptozotocin. These 30 diabetic rats underwent pancreas transplantation and overall survival, after 1 week, was 25 (83.3%). We believe that our successful survival rates could probably be explained by the close collaboration between Lee and our department. Moreover, we noted the importance of constant training in obtaining better results, and in our opinion Lee's technique of pancreas transplantation is a reliable experimental model which can be used to resolve problems linked to pancreas transplantation.