Immumosuppression of allotransplantation induced by transfusion of donor apoptotic cells

Objective To investigate the influence of apoptotic cells on organ transplantation.Methods Apoptosis was induced by ultraviolet irradiation and detected by flowcytometry.Ultraviolet irradiated donor spleen cells were injected to recipients prior to rat heterotopic heart transplantation at day 0,3,7 and 14.The allograft survival time was measured.Results Ultraviolet irradiation could induce apoptosis effectively.In the allogeneic Wistar-to-SD combination,preoperative intravenous injection of ultraviolet irradiated donor spleen cells resulted in a significant prolonged graft survival as compared with control.The best transfusion time was at 7th day (45.13±49.43 vs 7.33±0.87),while administration of normal or necrosis spleen cells had no such effect (8.00±1.41,9.75±1.55 respectively).Conclusion Preoperative administration of donor apoptotic cells prolonged graft survival.It is probably a feasible method to induce organ transplantation immune tolerance by donor apoptotic cells.