The in vivo effects of various immunoreactive treatments on allogeneic tendon grafts.

The immunologic antigenicity of tendons after various treatments was investigated by means of the complement-dependent cytotoxicity test in two strains of inbred rats. Allogeneic tendons treated by various methods were grafted into rats, and the survival of the grafted tendons was observed macro- and microscopically. Paraformaldehyde-treated allogeneic tendons showed the least immunologic response. The remaining treated allogeneic tendons showed moderate to marked immunologic responses. These in vivo results correlated with those obtained in previous in vitro experiments.