Induction of a cell-transferable suppression of alloreactivity by photodamaged lymphocytes.

We have reported previously that splenocytes from BALB/c mice acutely rejecting CBA/j skin allografts were exposed to 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) and ultraviolet A light and infused several times intravenously into naive BALB/c recipients; the recipients were hyporesponsive to CBA/j alloantigens in skin graft and delayed-type hypersensitivity assays, as well as in mixed leukocyte culture and cytotoxicity assays. We currently expand on this work by showing that donor-specific tolerance can be transferred adoptively to naive syngeneic animals via unfractionated splenocytes from mice rendered tolerant by the previous protocol. This suppressed response to alloantigen was transferred optimally with splenocytes taken from mice on the sixth day after the final treatment with PET cells. We further demonstrate that the cells that are adoptively transferring suppression are radiosensitive, Thy-1+, Lyt-2+, L3T4- T lymphocytes.