A new compound with an immunosuppressive property was purified from culture filtrates of Isaria sinclairii and was chemically modified to FTY720. Rat spleen cells incubated with FTY720 demonstrated features characteristic of apoptosis--such as the absence of surface microvilli, chromatin condensation, and the formation of apoptotic bodies--by electron microscopy, and genemic DNA fragmentation by agarose gel electrophoresis. When FTY720 was administered in liver-allografted rats at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg from day 1 to day 14 after transplantation, the recipients survived significantly longer than the control group. Pretransplant treatment with 5 mg/kg of FTY720 one day before and on the day of grafting induced a remarkable prolongation of recipient survival, and three of 10 recipients survived for longer than 50 days. Furthermore, administration of FTY720 at 5 mg/kg on days 3 and day 4 after grafting also prolonged survival. In canine kidney allografting, a pretransplant 2-day course of FTY720 at 5 mg/kg prolonged graft survival. Daily administration of FTY720 in combination with CsA resulted in a significant prolongation of graft survival in a synergistic manner. In addition, FTY720 appeared to be nontoxic in canine recipients. These results demonstrated that FTY720, having a unique mechanism of action, induces long-term graft acceptance in rat and dog allotransplantation.

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Segmental arterial mediolysis (SAM) is a rare, nonatherosclerotic, noninflammatory arteriopathy. A 52-year-old man with sudden hemiparesis of the right side was found to have an aneurysm of the left internal carotid artery and concomitant multiple aneurysms of the extrahepatic, celiac, and superior mesenteric arteries. Reconstructive operations using autologous vein graft were performed to treat the aneurysms. The histopathology analyses of resected arterial and aneurysmal specimens showed characteristics consistent with SAM. To our knowledge, a successfully treated case of SAM affecting both the carotid artery and visceral arteries has not previously been described.

In the present study, we examined the immunosuppressive effect of a new drug, FTY 720, on small bowel transplantation (SBT) in rats. Grafts from (LEW x BN) F 1-to-LEW rats treated with FTY 720 at 0.5 mg/kg from day 0 to 14 post-SBT survived significantly longer than untreated grafts. In addition, the administration of FTY 720 combined with cyclosporin (CyA; 5 mg/kg per day) had a synergistic effect on allograft survival. The graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR) that occurred in the LEWto-F 1 rats was markedly reduced after the administration of FTY 720. FTY 720 combined with a low dose of CyA completely abrogated GVHR without any adverse reaction. FTY 720 treatment resulted in a significant decrease in the number of lymphocytes in the peripheral blood and the spleen, but the number of peripheral neutrophils was unchanged. Thus, FTY 720 would appear to be an ideal drug to combine with CyA in order to control the immune reaction after SBT.