Intrathymic Islet Transplantation in the Spontaneously Diabetic BB Rat

Recently it was demonstrated that pancreatic islet allografts transplanted to the thymus of rats made diabetic chemically are not rejected and induce specific unresponsiveness to subsequent extrathymic transplants. The authors report that the thymus can also serve as an effective islet transplantation site in spontaneously diabetic BB rats, in which autoimmunity and rejection can destroy islets. Intrathymic Lewis islet grafts consistently reversed hyperglycemia for more than 120 days in these rats, and in three of four recipients the grafts promoted subsequent survival of intraportal islets. In contrast intraportal islet allografts in naive BB hosts all failed rapidly. The authors also show that the immunologically privileged status of the thymus cannot prevent rejection of islet allografts in Wistar Furth (WF) rats sensitized with donor strain skin and that suppressor cells are not likely to contribute to the unresponsive state because adoptive transfer of spleen cells from WF rats bearing established intrathymic Lewis islets fails to prolong islet allograft survival in secondary hosts.