The influence of cervical and thoracic lymphadenectomy on corneal allograft rejection in inbred rats
View/ Open
Date
2011-11-23Author
Brice, Sarah L
Kirk, Kirsty
Brereton, Helen Mary
Coster, Douglas John
Williams, Keryn Anne
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Aim To investigate the site of alloantigen presentation in
the rat following orthotopic corneal transplantation.
Methods Adult inbred Fischer 344 rats received
penetrating corneal allografts from inbred Wistar Furth
donors (n¼17), without lymphadenectomy. A second
group (n¼8) underwent bilateral removal of superficial
cervical and facial lymph nodes 7 days before
transplantation. A third group (n¼9) underwent bilateral
removal of superficial cervical, facial, internal jugular and
posterior cervical nodes. Graft survival was assessed by
corneal clarity and rejection was confirmed histologically.
Results All allografts underwent rejection. The median
time to rejection for unmodified allografts was day 15,
compared with day 14.5 for minimally
lymphadenectomised recipients and day 18 for more
extensively lymphadenectomised recipients (p>0.05, all
comparisons). The median day to rejection for the
combined group of lymphadenectomised rats was day
17 (p>0.05 compared with unmodified grafts). The
rejection process was similar in all recipients.
Conclusions Removal of multiple lymph nodes in the
neck and thorax did not significantly influence the
incidence, tempo or nature of the corneal allograft
response. Sensitisation and clonal expansion of corneal
alloantigen-reactive cells cannot occur only in superficial
cervical, facial, internal jugular and posterior cervical
lymph nodes in the rat.