[The effect of donor conditioning with cyclosporin on the survival time of allogenic heart transplants in the rat].

The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of a pretreatment of the heart donor with cyclosporin (CsA) at 25 or 50 mg kg BW on day -1 on survival time of rat heart allografts in a donor-recipient combination that was different at their major histocompatibility complex (MHC). No further immunosuppression was used. The survival of CsA-pretreated heart transplants was significantly prolonged in allogeneic recipients compared with untreated controls and 3 out of 10 grafts (25 mg kg) and 4 out of 9 grafts (50 mg kg) survived permanently. These preliminary experimental findings are new, but further investigations are necessary to increase the efficacy of this pretreatment protocol.