Mechanism and modification of rejection of heterografts between divergent species.

This study was undertaken with several specific objectives: to evaluate the role of preformed heterospecific antibodies in causing hyperacute rejection of whole organs transplanted from dogs to pigs or pigs to dogs; to see how much this abrupt rejection could be mitigated by the antibody depletion that occurs with the use of successive organs; to establish the contribution of coagulation changes to the pathogenesis of this kind of hyperacute rejection; and to determine if there were similarities between abrupt heterograft rejection and hyperacute rejection of homografts in presensitized recipients.