The effect of intrathymic injection of donor blood on the graft versus host reaction and cardiac allograft survival in the rat.
Our previous paper reported that it was difficult to induce tolerance using donor specific transfusion (DST) in Lewis rats, while in DA and PVG rats it was possible to induce tolerance using DST. In this paper we investigated the effects of DST in a local graft versus host reaction (GVHR) model using these rat strains. The following results were obtained: (i) DST suppressed the GVHR in the DA rat but not in the Lewis rat; (ii) DST did not suppress GVHR in PVG rat strain, but lymphocytes, prepared from the PVG rats that were tolerant of Lewis heart grafts induced by DST, could suppress the the GVHR; and (iii) in Lewis rats, intrathymic injection of whole blood suppressed the GVHR, suggesting this route of antigen delivery might be effective in prolonging allograft survival. Cardiac allograft survival in this strain was prolonged in some cases after pretreatment with intrathymic donor whole blood. These results suggest the value of the GVHR in the assessment of new protocols to induce allograft tolerance in rats.
Hamano
K
K
Department of Surgery, Yamaguchi University, School of Medicine, Japan.
Fujikura
Y
Y
Fukuda
S
S
Esato
K
K
Fukumoto
T
T
D000818:Animals; D001769:Blood / Q000276:immunology*; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000276:immunology*; D006087:Graft vs Host Reaction / Q000276:immunology*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000276:immunology; D007272:Injections, Intralymphatic; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous