Histological Changes of Spleen Autotransplanted in the Omentum of Rats

Introduction: The spleen is a lymphoid organ that plays an important role in the body's defense against organisms, participation in blood filtration process, phagocytosis and immunoglobulin production. When splenectomy due to severe splenic trauma or hematological disorder is inevitable, spleen autotransplantation may be the only option to preserve the spleen. It has not been determined the structural rearrangements after transplanting in comparison with the amount of transplanted spleen. The aim of this study was to evaluate the histological changes of spleen autotransplanted in the omentum of rats.

Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 16 male Wistar rats underwent splenectomy and transplanting three pieces of splenic tissue consists of 10-15% of the greater omentum. The rats were divided to two equal groups; Eight caseswere randomly separated and followedfor 6 months (Group Au-6) and 8 other cases also were separated for 12 months' follow-up (group Au-12). At the end of follow-up period, after the re-operation of autotransplanted rats, the splenic tissues underwent the macroscopic and microscopic examination and two groups were compared together.

Results: After laparotomy, splenic tissues were detected in all cases (8/8, 100%) of Au-6 group and 7 cases (87.5%) of Au-12 group. It’s observed no significant difference between two groups in the capsule around splenic tissue, organized structure, fibrosis and revascularization (P>0.05). The hemosiderin pigmentation was significantly higher in Au-12 group (P=0.03).

Conclusions: The results of this study showed that autotransplanting about 15 percent of splenic tissue were associated with a high success rate in tissue structure rearrangement. Therefore, spleen autotransplantation even in small sizes was highly recommended in cases of unavoidable splenectomy.