Improved surgical technique for the establishment of a murine model of aortic transplantation

Aortic allotransplantation is a reliable procedure to study the evolvement of chronic rejection in mice. The progressive nature of this process in mice is characterized by diffuse and concentric myointimal proliferation which is inevitably associated with variable degrees of luminal constriction. These vascular changes are comparable to those that are witnessed in organ allografts undergoing chronic rejection in humans, underscoring its utility as a model of choice for the study of the development of this lesion. Whilst improved surgical technique has resulted in markedly enhanced graft survival, the results are far from being acceptable. Realizing this limitation, we embarked on developing a modified technique for aortic transplantation which would allow for improved graft survival in mice. A bypass conduit was created by end-to-side anastomosis of a segment of the donor's thoracic aorta into the infrarenal portion of the recipient's abdominal aorta. Using this technique, the graft survival was >98% with evidence in allotransplanted aorta of morphological changes pathognomonic of chronic rejection. On the contrary, no histopathological anomalies were discerned in aortic grafts transplanted across syngeneic animals. This modified surgical approach ameliorates the unacceptably high graft loss associated with earlier techniques, further extending the utility of this model as a tool to study the molecular and cellular mechanisms rudiment to the evolvement of chronic rejection.