Abstract
Intrathymic (IT) injection of alloantigen has been shown to induce unresponsiveness to allografts although the exact mechanisms of tolerance induction remains unclear. C57BL/10 (H2b) cardiac allografts were accepted in C3H/He (H2k) mice pretreated with IT inoculation of donor splenocytes (1 x 10(6)) in combination with a depleting anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody 27 days before cardiac transplantation. To investigate which cell types were responsible for tolerance induction by IT injection of alloantigen, resting B (rB) cells or dendritic cells were used as the thymic inoculum instead of whole splenocytes. IT injection of rB cells induced indefinite graft prolongation in all recipients while only 20% of mice that had received IT injection of dendritic cells accepted grafts for over 100 days. In contrast, IT injection of dendritic cells resulted in significant deletion of donor-specific thymocytes whereas rB cells were relatively ineffective. IT deletion is not essential for the induction of tolerance by IT injection of rB cells; nondeletional mechanisms can be involved.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 177-81 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Transplant Immunology |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 3 |
Publication status | Published - Sept 1998 |
Keywords
- Animals
- Heart Transplantation
- Thymus Gland
- Graft Survival
- Mice, Inbred C57BL
- Mice, Inbred C3H
- Mice
- Transplantation, Homologous
- Mice, Inbred BALB C
- B-Lymphocytes
- Time Factors
- Tissue Donors