Transplantation of allogeneic bone marrow from thymus-deprived monkeys and certain characteristics of "graft-versus-host" cells.

Transplantation of allogeneic bone marrow both from normal and thymus-deprived donors (thymectomized lethally irradiated and restored with autologous bone marrow) was followed 6--7 days later by the appearance of large numbers of GVH cells in bone marrow and peripheral blood which were one of the characteristic features of acute GVHR. GVH cells isolated from peripheral blood 7 days after transplantation showed a high labelling index (about 30%) after 40 min incubation with 3H-thymidine. The prolongation of incubation failed to increase the proportion of labelled cells due to the low viability of GVH cells. The results obtained with T and B cell tests suggested that GVH cells had the properties of T lymphocytes: about 60% of the cells could form rosettes with non-sensitized sheep red blood cells; there were virtually neither Ig-bearing cells nor cells with receptors for C3 and Fc portion of Ig.