title: Effect of metacycloprodigiosin, an inhibitor of killer T cells on murine skin and heart transplants.
abstract: Metacycloprodigiosin is an antibiotic that has been shown to suppress T-cell proliferation induced by concanavalin A in vitro. We examined the effect of metacycloprodigiosin on murine allogenic skin and heart transplantation models, and compared graft rejection with donor-specific cytotoxic T-cells and antibody activity. The antibiotic slightly prolonged the survival of C57Bl/6 heart and skin grafts in BALB/c mice, although the effect was less that that of cyclosporin A. The effect was more evident in Bm1 (H-2D mutant) skin grafts on C57B1/6 hosts or in a minor histocompatibility antigen-mismatched model. In contrast, metacycloprodigiosin suppressed anti-graft cytotoxic T-cell activity of BALB/c spleen grafted with C57B1/6 skin as comparable to cyclosporin A, but had only partial effect on antibody production. Thus, metacycloprodigiosin is more effective in reducing splenic cytotoxic T-cell activity than in prolonging murine skin or cardiac allografts.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Immunology Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Magae
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Shearer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016572:Cyclosporine / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011353:Prodigiosin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; C098402:metacycloprodigiosin; D016572:Cyclosporine; D011353:Prodigiosin