Antilymphocytic antibodies and marrow transplantation. VI. Absence of immunosuppression in vivo after injection of monoclonal antibodies blocking graft-versus-host reactions and humoral antibody formation in vitro.

The in vivo and in vitro effectiveness of several monoclonal antimouse T and B cell antibodies, of anti-Th-1 and of Iak serum, as well as of ATG were compared. The parameters were prolongation of skin graft survival, prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), antibody and primary and secondary plaque formation against sheep redblood cells (RBCs), and T cell depletion of lymphoid tissues. In general, in vitro effectiveness of the monoclonal antibodies exceeded their in vivo effectiveness. Skin graft survival was prolonged by ATG, but not by monoclonal anti-T, or anti-T plus anti-B antibody. GVHD was prevented by in vitro incubation of donor bone marrow with monoclonal anti-Th-1, but in vivo treatment of marrow donors was ineffective. Treatment with ATG was successful. Anti Iak antibody blocked plaque formation by spleen cells incubated with sheep RBCs, but had no effect on secondary plaque formation when given in vivo. Neither was there any in vivo effect of anti-Iak or anti-Th-1 on antisheep RBC agglutinin formation. ATG was effective in both of these assays, although its cytotoxic and complement-fixing titer did not exceed that of anti-Th-1 or anti-Iak. Although anti-Th-1 was cleared more rapidly from the serum of mice expressing the corresponding Th-1 alloantigen, than from mice with the noncorresponding alloantigen and although anti-Th-1 was shown to bind to the T cell areas of the lymphoid tissue, it did not--unlike ATG--deplete these areas of T cells. Possible reasons for the difference in effectiveness of in vitro and in vivo application of these monoclonal antibodies are discussed.