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Article
November 1972

In Vivo and in Vitro Studies of Cardiac Allografts in the Rat: Immunological Enhancement

Author Affiliations

Bethesda, Md
From the Clinic of Surgery, National Heart and Lung Institute and the National Institute of Dental Research, Laboratory of Microbiology and Immunology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

Arch Surg. 1972;105(5):756-760. doi:10.1001/archsurg.1972.04180110077019
Abstract

Immunological enhancement of heterotopic cardiac allografts in rats was achieved by pretreatment of recipients with donor spleen and bone marrow cells (active enhancement) and by administration of noncytotoxic alloantiserum obtained from recipient strain rats immunized against donor spleen or bone marrow cells (passive enhancement). The prolongation of survival, though statistically significant, was not as great as the indefinite survival of renal allografts reported by others using similar treatment protocols. Specific and dose-dependent inhibition of recipient-donor mixed lymphocyte reactions was caused by alloantisera which "enhanced" graft survival in vivo. Mixed lymphocyte reactions also indicated that in actively enhanced recipients peripheral inhibition of rejection rather than central tolerance was the mechanism responsible for prolongation of allograft survival.

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