Adult transplantation tolerance induced by lentil lectin. I. The fate of tolerogenic lentil seed lectin after injection into mice.

Intravenous administration of lentil lectin is more efficient in the induction of transplantation tolerance to mouse skin allograft than intraperitoneal or subcutaneous administration. 131I-labelled LCA is eliminated relatively rapidly from the mouse body after i.v. injection (approximately 80% of a 1 mg dose eliminated after 48 h); LCA administered i.p. or s.c. is eliminated 2-3 times more slowly. The rate of elimination of LCA administered i.v. is only slightly lower than that of bovine serum albumin. Tolerogenic treatment by multiple i.p. or i.p. + i.v. doses of LCA only elicited a relatively low level of anti-LCA antibodies in the sera of recipients. Both LCA and BSA were distributed relatively homogeneously throughout the body but increased amounts of LCA were accumulated in the spleen, lymph nodes and lung.