Objective To study the role of chimerism on immune tolerance to cardiac allografts. Methods Male DA rat hearts were transplanted to male Lewis rats using Ono’s model and randomly divided into three groups: normal control group (group Ⅰ), rejection group (group Ⅱ), immune tolerance group (group Ⅲ). Mean survival time (MST), histological changes, mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR), chimerism of recipients’ spleen and thymus were measured after operation. Results The MST of cardiac allografts in group Ⅲ (85.28±7.48 d) was significantly longer than that in the group Ⅱ (7.33±1.03 d). Only a few inflammatory cells infiltrated in cardiac allografts in group Ⅲ. MLR of group Ⅲ were significantly decreased compared with those of group Ⅰ (Plt;0.01). Conclusion The chimerism of recipient plays an important role on immune tolerance to cardiac allografts.
