A short course of rapamycin prolongs liver transplantation in rats. A: Fully allogeneic liver transplantation (DA donor to LEW recipient) was performed, and the rats were given no treatment or were treated with rapamycin as follows: a short course at a dose of 1 mg/kg (oral gavage for 8 d from day 4 to day 11, n = 11), a short course at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg (8-d treatment from day 4 to day 11, n = 5) or a long course at a dose of 1 mg/kg (30-d treatment from day 4 to day 34, n = 4). Survival curves based on cumulative data are shown; B: H and E-stained histological sections from biopsy samples of a healthy liver and a grafted liver at the time of sacrifice on day 11 after liver transplantation (no treatment vs short course of rapamycin at 1 mg/kg) and on day 42 (short course of rapamycin at 1 mg/kg vs syngeneic); C: Histological grading of liver grafts using Banff scoring on day 11 and day 42 after transplantation, n = 4-5 rats/group.