Preliminary results of orthotopic en bloc uterus and ovary transplantation in the laboratory rat.

A new experimental model of whole uterus and ovary transplantation in the laboratory rat was achieved. The main goals of this study were concerned with developing and standardizing the microsurgical technique of uterus transplantation in rats and observing the particular cellular patterns of acute allograft rejection at the level of the transplanted graft. Thirty-five orthotopic uterus transplantations were performed. An additional 20 female rats were used for dissection training sessions. Recipients were euthanasied at 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours. Immediate postoperative survival was 100%. Patency of the microsurgical anastomoses, checked at 24 hours, was 100%. At 72 hours thrombosis occurred in all anastomoses. The explanted uterine grafts were fixed in formaline and analyzed under light microscopy and specific imunohistochemical analysis. The acute allograft rejection has a particular cellular reaction pattern, probably due to the unique diversity of the tissues that compose it. Inflammatory cells like LTCD8+, LBCD20+ and mastocytes tend to agglomerate in the vicinity of nervous and vascular structures, showing no signs of lymphoid tissue disposition like in typical acute rejection. Uterus transplantation in rats has proven to be a valid experiment that allows us to express hope that by further research on transplantation of the uterus gynecologists will be able to introduce an adapted technique in the treatment of specific cases of human female infertility.