Successful retransplantation of the rat liver grafts

The nonparenchymal cells of a liver graft-consisting of Kupffer cells, dendritic cells, and other bone marrow-derived leukocytes-are a transient population. These passenger leukocytes have been shown to be completely replaced by hematopoietic cells of recipient origin within 30 days after grafting. If the liver graft is then removed from the recipient for grafting to another recipient, it presents as a chimeric graft to the 2 degree recipient with a parenchyma of the original donor and passenger leukocytes of the 1 degree recipient. With proper selection of donor, 1 degree recipient, and 2 degree recipient strain combinations, this retransplantation model can be employed to study the role of each graft component (i.e., liver graft parenchyma vs. passenger leukocytes) in the mechanisms of immune responses, particularly those that lead to tolerance induction. In this report we give a brief account of our techniques and results of retransplantation of nonarterialized rat liver grafts.