Allograft reactivity in chick embryos

✍ Scribed by Seto, Frank

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 784 KB
• Volume: 177
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401770308

✦ Synopsis

Kinetic studies with the splenomegaly assay and the in vivo antibody assay of marker allogeneic immunocompetent cells were made to ascertain when in embryonic development the capacity to actively reject foreign cells is manifested by the chick embryo. It was found that (1) the splenomegaly response elicited with equivalent amounts of immunologically competent cells was high in 14-day embryo hosts but much less in embryo hosts 16-, and 18day of age. Whereas the GVH reaction was effectively reduced in cyclophosphamide-pretreated 14-day hosts, no such effect was observed in older hosts;

(2) the antibody production by allogeneic immunocytes, as measured with the in vivo assay, was high in 14-and 16-day embryo hosts, but significantly reduced in 18-day embryo and day-old chick hosts. In contrast the antibody output remained high in all cyclophosphamide-pretreated hosts; and (3) the marker immunocytes, cultured in embryo hosts for several days, maintained their antigen-responsive capacity unimpaired up to the seventeenth day of incubation but showed some loss by the eighteenth day. The experimental findings indicate that the host response during splenomegaly in young embryo hosts is not associated with graft rejection. However, coinciding with the reduction in splenomegaly in older hosts is rejection of donor cells. Alloimmune responsiveness exists as early as the development.