Experience with epigastric free flap allograft in the rat

We report our continuing experience with the rat epigastric free vascularized flap as a transplant model. Four groups of ten pure-bred rats underwent transplantation of epigastric vessel based skin flaps. The flaps were immediately revascularized in the recipient animal and the results recorded. No immunologic manipulation was performed. Rejection and acceptance of the flaps occurred according to known genetic predictions in these 40 procedures. This study will serve as a control for immunologic manipulation experiments.