Chronic allograft rejection inLumbricus terrestris

✍ Scribed by Cooper, Edwin L.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1969
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 379 KB
• Volume: 171
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401710110

✦ Synopsis

To determine the capacity of earthworms to reject tissue transplants, first-set orthotopic allografts of body wall were exchanged between 280 adult Lumbricus tenestris. In addition, 30 worms were autografted as controls. Both auto-and allogeneic tissue transplants healed in promptly; autografts survived permanently while allografts showed varying degrees of incompatibility. Intrapopulation allografts in worms from Canada showed 22% permanently surviving transplants while 95% were not destroyed in the Oregon group; the remaining allografts in both groups were completely destroyed after prolonged chronic periods or showed incomplete rejection after observations during eight and one-half months. No intrapopulation Oregon transplants were rejected completely while only 1% were in the Canadian group. About 5.5% of interpopulation allografts were destroyed on Oregon hosts and 15.3% on Canadian recipients between 38 and 153 days after grafting. Therefore, recognition and rejection of tissue allo-antigens are characteristic of the primitive immune response of annelid worms.