The Effect of Intravenously Paratyroid Cell Xenotransplantation in Sheep: As an Animal Model

Parathyroid cell transplantation is an effective approach for the treatment of permanent hypoparathyroidism. Intramuscular and intraperitoneal routes were performed previously but intravenous adminstration has not been conducted previous studies. Our aim is to determine proper homing site for parathyroid cells, therefore we administered parathyroid cells intravenously and observed results. This study is carried out on nine sheep. According to the given substance the sheep were divided into two groups; seven were parathyroid cell injected group and two were isotonic saline solution injected control group. Parathyroid cells were obtained from a patient with chronic kidney failure and were injected intravenously into sheep after cell isolation.: 20x106 cells for two animals, 50x106 cells for two animals, 100x106 cells for two animals, and 200x106 cells for one animal respectively, with no post injection immunosuppresive therapy. Immunosuppresion was not administered. Physical conditions of animals and blood biochemical tests were observed for three months. After sacrifications, kidneys and livers were evaluated histopathologically. In 20x106 and 50x106 cell transplanted groups serum PTH levels increased in the first seven days but in the other groups remained stable. Histopathological evaluations of kidneys and livers revealed fibrosis related to the number of infused cells, however biochemical functional differentiations were not detected. Intravenous parathyroid cell transplantation is considered as an effective and useful technique to perform without immunosuppression. However, further and long term studies need to have more acceptable results in future for clinical purpose.