Transplantation and Re-transplantation of Mouse Kidney Grafts to Study Local Immune Responses

Abstract Mouse kidney transplantation is widely used to study the immune response to allogeneic grafts. This response includes a circulating systemic compartment and a resident non circulating one. A distinction between these compartments remains an important caveat to the interpretation of the resident or local immune response’s importance and function. Here, we describe re-transplantation as a method to functionally test the resident component of the primary immune response while also studying the secondary recipient’s response. Our detailed, stepwise protocol can be reliably replicated for both the primary and secondary, donor and recipient operations. The techniques in this protocol can be efficiently implemented by an individual proficient in mouse kidney transplantation surgical procedures.