Fatal response suggestive of graft-versus-host reaction following transplantation of spleen cells from allogeneic athymic (nude) donors.

Normal female SJL/J mice were exposed to 950 R of total body irradiation (TBI) and transplanted with allogeneic spleen or marrow cells from normal or nude (athymic) C57BL/10 donors. With nude mouse donor marrow, no evidence of graft-versus-host (GVH) response was seen and all SJL/J recipients survived for more than 75 days. In contrast, when spleen cells taken from the same nude C57BL/10 donors were engrafted into SJL/J mice the incidence of fatalities among the recipients was 70% by 60 days. Furthermore, all of the recipients of nude mouse spleen cells showed signs strongly suggestive of GVH response. Comparative fatalities among the recipients of cells from normal donors were 27% for marrow at 60 days and 100% for spleen at 11 days, and these were accompanied by the characteristic signs of GVH response usually seen after transplantation of cells from normal allogeneic donors. Transplantation of normal C57BL/10 marrow mixed with small numbers at normal spleen cells resulted in an increase in the number of fatalities among the SJL/J recipients, and an increase in the severity of the signs of GVH response as compared to that seen following engraftment of normal C57BL/10 marrow alone. However, no such increases in fatalities or severity were observed when similar amounts of nude C57BL/10 spleen cells were engrafted along with normal marrow cells into SJL/J recipients. The results suggest that a factor may exist in nude mouse spleen which in allogeneic transplantation can lead to a fatal response suggestive of GVH reaction, but that nude mouse spleen lacks the T cell-related ability to enhance GVH response that has been previously demonstrated following allogeneic transplantation using normal spleen and marrow donors.