Transplantation of Homologous and Heterologous Aorta as a Venous Transplant

Abstract

Dog or bovine aorta treated with both glutaraldehyde and ficin was transplanted to dog inferior vena cava. Heterologous bovine aorta preserved better patency than the homologous dog aorta as long as 6 months. Immunological examination of homologous dog aorta was revealed that there was no immunogenecity in terms of humoral and cell-mediated immunity.
Histopathological examination revealed that ficin treatment of dog aorta made the integrity of the vessel wall fragile. Therefore, we may conclude that treatment of aorta to reduce immunogenecity should be reconsider on the point of the vessel wall architechture to preserve it's function.