Daily Monitoring of the Immune Response to Various Allografts in Rats

Abstract

The appearance of activated lymphocytes and antibodies in the circulation of rats was monitored following allogeneic kidney, skin, or combined skin-spleen transplants. Lymphocyte activation was measured by 3H-thymidine incorporation, and antibody by a hemolytic assay. These assays have been developed so that small samples of blood could be used, thus maintaining recipient survival and allowing for daily correlation between the response observed and the fate of the graft. These responses were detected after allogeneic transplantation in two recipient strains, but not following isogeneic renal or skin transplantation in either strain. The relative levels, time of onset and persistence of lymphocyte proliferation and of hemolytic antibody were found to differ substantially for the three different kinds of allografts. In general, these studies have demonstrated the validity of using the lymphocyte proliferative and humoral responses together as indicators of a current immune response against allogeneic renal transplants.

Depression of Peripheral Lymphocyte Proliferation and Hemolytic Antibody Production in Passively Enhanced Rat Renal Allograft Recipients

“…All three untreated allograft recipients ( C , D, E) showed both proliferative and antibody responses. As previously shown in the Lewis strain (Smart et al 1978) the peak of the proliferative response as well as the rate of antibody formation was more variable than is seen in DA recipients.…”

“…Studies on allogeneic and isogeneic renal transplant recipients in the (DA x Lewis) F1 into DA and Lewis combinations have indicated that the proliferative response of peripheral lymphocytes is specific, that it invariably precedes rejection, and that its magnitude may be related to the magnitide of subsequent rejection (Smart et al 1978). In 10 of the 11 recipients which have been treated with enhancing antiserum in this study the proliferative response of peripheral lymphocytes and the hemolytic antibody response have been depressed.…”

“…The renal and skin transplantation techniques have been described in a previous 30 1 T paper (Smart et al 1978). DA anti-Lewis and Lewis anti-DA enchancing sera were prepared as described by Fabre & Morris (1973), using one-tenth spleen equivalents for immunization.…”

“…The percentage cell death was measured following the addition of 4~1 of rabbit complement. These techniques have been described in detail in a previous paper (Smart et al 1978).…”