A comparison of spontaneous versus induced tolerance in an experimental model of rat hepatic allograft transplantation.

In some rodent haplotype combinations, spontaneous tolerance (ST) develops after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) without any immunosuppression [e.g., Lewis (Lew, RT1) into Wistar Furth (WF, RT1u)] whereas in other combinations vigorous, progressive rejection rapidly leads to the death of the recipients. We (and others) have induced tolerance (IT) in a rejecting strain combination [Dark Agouti (DA, RT1a) into Lew] by intrathymic inoculation of donor bone marrow cells and 1 cc of antilymphocyte serum (ALS) 7-14 days prior to OLT. We hypothesized that cellular immunity in the two groups of animals was similar. We first compared survival in each group of animals and found that there was no difference in the number of animals surviving > 100 days (8/11 vs 16/17, ST vs IT, respectively, P = 0.11). Liver function studies were similar in these animals at 2 and 4 weeks after OLT and comparable to syngeneic Lew into Lew OLT animals, but significantly lower than in the rejecting DA into Lew combination treated with only ALS. Animals that were unresponsive to their allografts demonstrated donor-specific tolerance by the acceptance of donor strain (n = 4, ST and IT) and rejection of third party (n = 1 and n = 2, ST and IT groups, respectively) heterotopic heart allografts. One-way mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLC) of peripheral blood lymphocytes against donor and third party antigen were suppressed to donor and third party stimulators versus the MLC of unmanipulated animals. Naive host strain responder lymph node cells and purified T cells demonstrated strong proliferative responses to donor strain antigen in both the ST and IT animals.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)