Reaction Patterns of Skin Xenografts

Abstract

The mode of vascularization and the course of tissue morphology and vascular changes following the transplantation of skin xenografts have not been extensively investigated. It has been generally held that skin transplanted between members of different species induces a more rapid and violent rejection reaction than do allografts. According to Ribbert-Göttingen (1904), who transplanted skin from humans and guinea pigs to rabbits, xenografts were rejected within 3 days after transplantation. Loeb and Addison (1909, 1911) reported that skin xenografts interchanged between various animals, including rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, and even pigeons, eventually became necrotic after 6–11 days and occasionally even more rapidly. They did not provide information regarding either the vascularization or the vascular pattern of the xenografts. Woodruff (1960) maintained that xenografts show little or no evidence of vascularization and that ischemia rather than rejection is responsible for the lack of success of the xenografts. Indeed, for a long time most authorities agreed that xenografts invariably fail to receive a direct blood supply from the recipient before the onward rush of the rejection phenomenon.