Failure of intravenously infused spleen cells bearing a minor histoincompatibility to delay rejection of skin grafts bearing additional antigens.

Intravenous infusions of spleen cells bearing single minor H antigens have been shown to induce an antigen-specific prolongation of survival of subsequently applied skin grafts bearing the infused antigen. In this report it is shown that i.v. infusion of spleen cells bearing only H-Y as an alloantigen fails to prolong the survival of subsequently applied skin grafts bearing H-Y and additional H antigens. In contrast, others have shown that the i.v. infusion of alloantigen-bearing cells can inhibit DTH reactions, CTL generation, or organ allograft rejection directed against additional alloantigens, provided they are present in the challenge inoculum or graft together with the i.v.-infused antigens. Several possible reasons for the discrepancy between the results with skin grafts, and the results of others using different assays of responsiveness to H antigens are examined.