Effect of cyclosporin A on the anti-leukaemia action associated with graft-versus-host disease.

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was induced in Hooded (Rt1c) strain rats by means of high dose total body irradiation (TBI) and subsequent reconstitution with allogeneic bone marrow and spleen cells from WAG (Rt1u) strain donors. Untreated recipients of allogeneic cells died within 20 days of engraftment, whereas those treated daily with Cyclosporin A (CyA), given either from the day receipt of the graft (Day 0) or from Day 4, survived until the end of the experiment (Day 50). If delayed until Day 7, CyA prophylaxis was totally ineffective. Hooded rats bearing a syngeneic leukaemia were irradiated and reconstituted with allogeneic bone marrow. During the course of the ensuing graft-versus-host response (GVHR) leukaemia cells were eradicated from the spleens of the host animals. However, as a consequence of CyA prophylaxis, whether started on Day 0 or delayed until Day 4, the anti-leukaemia potential of the bone marrow allograft was completely abrogated. Anti-tumour activity after engraftment was detectable first at Day 7, i.e. the time at which the GVHR became intractable to the effects of CyA. The results indicate (1) that CyA suppresses the initial events but not the effector phase of the GVHR, and (2) that the anti-host and anti-tumour action of the GVHR may be temporally inseparable.