Open AccessTHE MECHANISM OF PROLONGED GRAFT SURVIVAL FOLLOWING REMOVAL OF THE REGIONAL LYMPH NODE
Author(s) -
Wotherspoon Js,
Dorsch Se
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.45
H-Index - 204
eISSN - 1534-6080
pISSN - 0041-1337
DOI - 10.1097/00007890-198611000-00019
Subject(s) - lymph node , cytotoxic t cell , medicine , immune system , suppressor , immunology , antigen , transplantation , lymph , andrology , surgery , pathology , biology , in vitro , cancer , biochemistry
The immune responsiveness of rats in which the rejection of RT-1-incompatible neonatal heart grafts had been prevented by removal of the draining lymph node was examined. It was found that within three days of node removal animals developed a state of specific unresponsiveness characterized by the failure to reject secondary grafts made into the contralateral leg with intact draining nodes. Studies of recipients with long-surviving grafts revealed that their serum contained significant levels of cytotoxic alloantibody although their cells behaved like those from naive donors in mixed lymphocyte interactions, graft-versus-host responses, and adoptive allograft assays. There was no evidence for the presence of sensitized T cells or suppressor T cells in the tissues of recipients with long-surviving grafts. The findings support the suggestion that prolonged graft survival following node removal is due to enhancement actively induced by the passage of graft antigen into the circulation at a time when the induction of the cell-mediated response has been aborted by removal of the node regional to the graft.