Prolonged adult skin allograft survival as a result of cotransplantation with neonatal tissue. The requirement for antigen sharing between graft and cotransplant.
The survival of an adult skin allograft can be prolonged by a cotransplant of neonatal, but not adult, skin on the same recipient. We demonstrated this phenomenon using a C3HeB/FeJ (H-2k; C3H) adult graft and neonatal cotransplant donors. The median survival time (MST) for adult graft survival on B6AF1 (H-2a/b) recipients was 59 days on recipients treated with antilymphocyte serum and donor bone marrow cells. With adult or neonatal cotransplants, the MSTs for adult graft survival were 55 and > 100 days, respectively. Our current experiments explore the specificity of this phenomenon by substituting neonatal cotransplants of several allogeneic and partially allogeneic strains. Cotransplants that do not share the antigens presented by the adult graft to the recipient as foreign do not produce any prolongation of adult graft survival. Thus, cotransplants of adult or neonatal C57BL/6J (H-2b) or A/J (H-2a) strain skins had no significant effect on adult C3H graft survival. In contrast to these results, neonatal (but not adult) cotransplants that share presented antigens produce a significant cotransplant effect. The presence, on a recipient, of a neonatal cotransplant of CBA/J (H-2k) resulted in significant prolongation of adult skin grafts (MST > 150 days; P < 0.05). As well, on a different recipient strain (CAF1; H-2a/d), neonatal C3H-H-2o2/SfSn (H-2o2) skin cotransplants, sharing only background antigens and H-2Dk with the adult graft donor, caused a significant prolongation of adult graft survival relative to that seen on recipients bearing only a single adult graft (MSTs = 53 and 31 days; P < 0.05). Our results suggest that this graft-prolonging effect of neonatal cotransplantation requires that the cotransplant shares antigens with the adult graft that are presented as foreign to the recipient.
Markees
T G
TG
Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy and Allied Health, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
De Fazio
S R
SR
Gozzo
J J
JJ
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000502:physiology*; D006183:H-2 Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
D006183:H-2 Antigens