Dissociation of antigenicity and immunogenicity of neonatal epidermal allografts in the mouse.

Cultured neonatal epidermal cells or sheets have been grafted successfully onto allogeneic recipients across an MHC barrier, while genetically identical skin allografts were rejected. Induction of specific allosensitization by prior priming with allogeneic spleen cells or allogeneic skin grafts did not prejudice the survival of subsequent cultured epidermal allografts. When cultured epidermis and adult skin of the same genotype were grafted simultaneously, as double grafts, cultured epidermis survived despite the presence of an ongoing allograft rejection reaction in the host. Furthermore, pretreatment of the recipients with cultured epidermis failed to protect against rejection of subsequent allogeneic adult skin grafts of the same genetic origin. These data indicate that cultured epidermis is neither immunogenic nor antigenic in allogeneic host. In companion experiments it was determined that neonatal (noncultured) epidermal allografts also survived indefinitely, implying that neonatal epidermis lacks antigenicity. However, in contrast to cultured epidermis, neonatal epidermal allografts evoked specific systemic immunity in their recipients, since they rejected a subsequent allogeneic adult skin grafts in accelerated fashion. These data demonstrate that in neonatal epidermis antigenicity can be dissociated from immunogenicity.