Rat intrastriatal neural allografts challenged with skin allografts at different time points

The present study was designed to address two questions. First, can an intrastriatal neural allograft exhibit long-term survival (18 weeks) if the host is immunized by an orthotopic skin graft 6 weeks after neural transplantation (the 6w-Long group)? Second, can an intrastriatal neural allograft survive when the host is challenged by an orthotopic skin allograft either simultaneously (Sim) with the intracerebral graft surgery or 2 (2w) weeks later? Dissociated embryonic ventral mesencephalic tissue from Lewis rats was stereotaxically injected into the striatum of Sprague-Dawley rats with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions. Six weeks after neural grafting, no reduction in amphetamine-induced motor asymmetry was observed in the Sim and 2w groups. At 6 weeks after skin grafting, the mean motor asymmetry scores had returned to the initial pretransplantation levels in the 6w-Long group. All the neural allografts in the Sim group were completely rejected, and the mean number of tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity neurons in the grafts was significantly reduced in the 2w and the 6w-Long group, when compared to the no-skin control group. There were very high levels of expression of MHC class I and II antigens, marked cellular infiltrates containing macrophages and T-lymphocytes, and several activated microglia and astrocytes in and around the surviving intracerebral transplants in the 2w and the 6w-Long groups. The results suggest that intrastriatal neural allografts are more likely to be rejected rapidly if the host is efficiently immunized with the same alloantigens simultaneously or soon after the neural transplantation than at a later time point. When established neural allografts are subjected to a strong immunological challenge, they undergo protracted rejection.