Depletion of asialo-GM1+ cells from the F1 recipient mice prior to irradiation and transfusion of parental spleen cells prevents mortality to acute graft-versus-host disease and induction of anti-host specific cytotoxic T cells.

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was induced in irradiated (750 rad) (CBA x C57BL/6)F1 hybrid mice by an intravenous injection of 30 x 10(6) CBA spleen cells and 5 x 10(6) syngeneic F1 bone marrow cells. The GVHD resulted in the death of 80% of recipients within 9 days. However, when radioresistant Asialo-GM1+ cells were depleted from the recipients with a single injection of anti-Asialo-GM1 antibody 2 days before irradiation and transplantation, mortality decreased significantly (to 11%). During the GVHD, anti-host specific cytotoxic T cell (CTL) activity could be shown in vitro in the spleens of mice suffering from the GVHD if suppressor activity was first abolished by in vitro culture procedures. This CTL activity, however, was not detectable in the spleens of anti-ASGM1 antibody pretreated hosts. The results indicate that radioresistant ASGM1+ cells of host origin are necessary for the induction of both anti-host CTL and lethal GVHD.