The use of skin allograft with donor-specific tolerance in a rabbit model of full-thickness burn

Previous studies in our laboratory demonstrated that portal vein or intraosseous administration of donor bone marrow cells for modulation of the central immune system is likely to be beneficial for allograft tolerance induction in rabbits. We recently reported that the severity of host conditioning for donor-specific tolerance induction was reduced without loss of efficacy by using a single intraosseous injection of donor bone marrow cells without immunosuppressive agent administration or T cell depletion. We now further investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of skin allografting using donor-specific tolerance to treat full-thickness burns.Materials and methodsDutch rabbits were used as recipients, and Japanese white rabbits were used as donors. Three experimental groups of burned rabbits were studied. Group I, allograft control; group II, allograft plus total-body irradiation; group III, allograft plus total-body irradiation and bone marrow infusion. Allograft survival times were determined by macroscopic and histopathologic examinations.ResultsMean (S.D.) skin allograft survival was as follows: group I, 13.2 (4.1) days; group II, 15.2 (3.7) days; group III, 108.4 (14.3) days.ConclusionWe have shown the potential to perform long-term skin allografts by the induction of donor-specific tolerance in a rabbit model of burn.