Horm Metab Res 1988; 20(9): 562-565
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-1010885
ORIGINALS

© Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart · New York

Prolonged Intratesticular Islet Allograft Survival is Not Dependent on Local Steroidogenesis

H. P. Selawry, K. B. Whittington
  • Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.
Supported by VA Medical Funds and from a grant from the National Institutes of Health, R01 DK 35934-02A2
Further Information

Publication History

1987

1987

Publication Date:
14 March 2008 (online)

Summary

The mechanisms that control the privileged survival of intratesticular organ allografts are not known. It had been postulated that the elevated levels of testicular steroid hormones, testosterone and/or progesterone, could be responsible for the inhibition of the local immune response. The goals of this study were to examine intratesticular islet allograft survival in rats in which both germ cell and Leydig cell function had been selectively destroyed. A chemical castration was induced in diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats with the chronic administration of a GnRH analog, leuprolide. In addition, both germ cell function and Steroidogenesis were severely impaired by means of the surgical removal of the pituitary in diabetic rats. Pancreatic islets were isolated from Wistar-Lewis rats and were then implanted into the abdominal testes of leuprolide-treated and of hypophysectomized rats. No immunosuppression was given to the grafted rats. The results showed that long-term allograft survival occurred in the abdominal testes deprived of germ cells, of testosterone and of progesterone.

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