Lymphoid cell transfers between adult C57BL/6 mice differing at the lpr and/or nu locus. Humoral immunity phenotype of the chimeras.

Congenic C57BL/6 mice (B6) homozygous only at the nu (nude, athymic) locus (B6 nu) or also at the lpr (lympho-proliferation) locus (B6 nu, lpr) were used as recipients for the transfer of spleen and/or lymph node cells from either normal B6 mice (B6+) or lpr-homozygous B6 mice (B6 lpr). Highly increased survival was obtained for [B6 lpr----B6 nu, lpr] chimeras, but not for [B6+----B6 nu, lpr] and [B6 nu----B6 nu, lpr] chimeras. All long-term survivors that were killed showed an increased responsiveness to the T-cell mitogen concanavalin A (Con A) but no change of responsiveness to the B-cell mitogen lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Some enlargement of spleen and lymph nodes was observed only in some specific [B6----B6 nu, lpr] chimeras (female recipients of spleen cells). Within a few weeks after cell grafting, all but [B6 nu----B6 nu, lpr] chimeras developed highly increased levels of serum immunoglobulins, as well as a higher occurrence of anti-single-stranded (ss) DNA containing sera. These chimeras had been constructed in order to dissect the components of the lpr phenotype etiopathology (primordial involvement of B and/or T lineage cells, lymphoid and/or environmental influences). Though the evolution of serological parameters showed some chimera type-specific features, it seems difficult to reconstitute the entire expression of the lpr phenotype.