Influence of the incubation of cells with zinc and lithium ions on GVH reactivity of cells and on their ability to form haemopoietic colonies.

Mouse spleen and bone marrow cells were incubated for 2 h with ZnCl2 and Li2SO4 at different concentrations and tested for the ability to evoke the graft-versus-host reactions (GVHR) and to form pluripotent haemopoietic colonies. ZnCl2 at concentrations 5 X 10(-6) to 5 X 10(-4) M inhibited the regional GVHR. At a concentration of 5 X 10(-6) ZnCl2 also inhibited the ability to elicit the systemic GVHR in irradiated mice. Haemopoiesis was stimulated in cells incubated with ZnCl2 at concentration 5 X 10(-6) M, it was inhibited after incubation of A/01a cells with 5 X 10(-4) M ZnCl2, whereas cells from non-inbred ICR mice were stimulated by the latter concentration of ZnCl2 for haemopoiesis. Li2SO4 inhibited the ability to induce the regional GVHR at concentrations of 5 X 10(-3) and 10(-2) M, had no effect on survival of mice during the systemic GVHR and exerted rather an inhibitory effect on haemopoiesis.