The guinea pig (GP)-to-rat transplantation model has been widely used to study hyperacute rejection (HAR) of xenografts. In this model heart graft survival beyond 8 days has never been reported. In contrast, survival times of kidney and heart grafts up to 62 days have been reported in the discordant pig-to-primate model. It is not clear why it is so much more difficult to obtain long-term graft survival in the GP-to-rat model as compared to the pig-to-primate model. We hypothesized that mechanisms other than activation of complement may be involved in the rejection of guinea pig grafts by rat recipients. Therefore, we have studied in detail the rejection of GP aortic grafts by rat recipients, either PVG/c+ (complement competent, group 1), or PVG/c- (complement C6 deficient, group 2). PVG/c- rats are not able to form the membrane attack complex (MAC) of complement. Forty-four GP-to-rat aortic transplantations were performed successfully. Recipient rats were sacrificed at various intervals after transplantation (4, 24 and 48 h, and 7 and 28 days, three to six animals per time point per group). Twenty-four hours after transplantation the number of cells in the media was significantly decreased from 11.1 +/- 0.9 cells/mm2 to 3.1 +/- 2.8 cells/mm2 in group 1, whereas the number of medial cells in group 2 remained the same. The number of medial cells was significantly decreased in both groups at 48 h post-transplantation (group 1: 1.8 +/- 2.2 cells/mm2; group 2: 5.5 +/- 3.0 cells/mm2). At that time no infiltrating cells were apparent in the grafts of either two groups. Seven days after transplantation, the number of medial cells remained low in group 1 (1.8 +/- 2.9 cells/mm2) but was increased in group 2 (10.7 +/- 2.6 cells/mm2) as a consequence of infiltrating immune cells. These infiltrating cells consisted mainly of macrophages, but also T cells and NK cells. At 28 days after transplantation the grafts in both groups were completely reorganized and no distinction could be made between media and adventitia. These results show that rejection of GP grafts by rat recipients can occur in the absence of both MAC of complement and immune competent cells. This MAC and immune cells independent type of rejection has not been described before and may explain the difficulty in obtaining long-term graft survival in the GP-to-rat xenotransplantation model.