Objective To evaluate the safety of enteral rehabilitative therapy in rat small bowel transplantation. Methods Forty-eight rat recipients of allogeneic heterotopic small bowel transplantation (SD and Wistar) were randomly divided into 4 groups according to the application or not of enteral rehabilitative therapy and cyclosporine A (CsA). The pathological changes of the graft, IL-2 receptor expression in lamina propria lymphocytes, serum IL-2 concentrations, results of spleen lymphocytes transformation test and the IL-2 secretion capacity were determined and compared. Results Enteral rehabilitative therapy could promote the immune function of the recipient so as to augment the acute rejection. But such effects could be blocked by the commonly used immunosuppressant CsA. Under the immunosuppression of CsA (10 mg*kg-1*d-1, i.m.), application of enteral rehabilitative therapy did not induce or aggravate acute rejection.Conclusion Under effective immunosuppression, application of enteral rehabilitative therapy is safe in rat small bowel transplantation.