Prolongation of survival of primary renal allografts by feeding of donor spleen cells.

We have found that feeding Brown Norway (BN) rat spleen cells to Lewis rats prior to transplanting BN kidneys prolongs allograft survival (mean: 8.8 days in unfed rats, 21 days in the BN cell-fed rats; longest survival: 11 days without allo-feeding vs. 37 days with feeding). We have also found that feeding BN cells both before and after transplantation further extends survival (mean: 38 days; longest survival: 105 days). We also examined the cells infiltrating the grafts during the early stages of the allograft response (day 5). Using flow cytometry, we found a significant decrease in the number of leukocytes infiltrating the transplanted kidneys of fed animals. This decrease was mainly due to a drop in the number of infiltrating T cells. We also found that cytokine mRNA production by the graft-infiltrating lymphocytes, assessed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, showed a significant increase in interleukin-4 and transforming-growth factor-beta mRNA in the graft-infiltrating lymphocytes of fed animals compared with the controls.