Rodents’ legs transplanted

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 21

Rodents’ legs transplanted

From the London “Observer”

Scientists in California have successfully grafted legs from one strain of rat on to another .and have kept the transplanted limbs alive and well for an unprecedented 60 days. The scientists, at the University of California’s Irvine Campus Medical School, have achieved this by treating the host rats with an immunosuppressant . drug called cyclosporin A. Although the implications of the experiment are sensational — they could eventually make it possible for surgeons to give people new limbs — the Irvine team are urging caution. . The real advance they have made is to keep the transplanted leg healthy (it looks normal and the hair grows) long enough for them to study the process of rejection. No other scientists have been able to get so far, but the results are only a tiny step towards perfecting tech-

niques to transplant “peripheral tissue,” as scientists call limbs, hands and toes. ' The team has given 15 white rats of a strain called Lewis, specially bred for laboratory' work, legs from a wild strain called Norway. As Norway rats are black, the implants stand out. The legs do not function normally; for surgical reasons not all the muscular connections have been made. After the first 60 to 70 days the legs start to wither and the hair stops growing. Eventually, 160 days or so later, the transplanted legs die. The secret of the Califor-, nian team’s success is the use of cyclosporin. Made by the Swiss firm Sandoz, it is a relatively new drug that is being increasingly used by surgeons to inhibit rejection in people after kidney, liver and heart/lung transplants. In rats cyclosporin A works well at doses small enough for the animals to remain completely healthy.