Islet allografts are destroyed by disease occurrence in the spontaneously diabetic BB rat

Transplantation of cultured islet and pituitary tissue from PVG (RT1c) donors to major histocompatibility complex-incompatible BB/D recipients (RT1u) results in tissue-specific destruction of the grafted islets but not of the pituitary. We interpret this response as disease occurrence in the MHC-incompatible islet graft. Islet damage is associated with eosinophil and mast cell accumulation in and around the grafted tissue. Antibody deposition is also present in tissues of the BB rat. This is suggestive of an antibody-mediated allergic reaction.