Antibodies to quail erythrocytes in quail-chicken spinal cord chimeras.

Quail-chicken spinal cord chimeras are a model for temporary acceptance followed by rejection of xenografts and also for demyelinating lesions of the central nervous system. The antiglobulin test with quail erythrocytes was employed to detect antibodies in sera of quail-chicken spinal cord chimeras. Sera of all 46 chimeras tested gave positive results. In virtually all instances, antibodies were detected within 10 weeks after hatching and they persisted for all the observation time up to 8 months. The antibodies detected in these tests were directed against species antigens of the quail. They were apparently identical with xenoantibodies described in a previous study, which were detected by indirect immunofluorescence with quail tissue sections; on the other hand, mixed agglutination tests with quail embryonal cell monolayers employed previously had detected a broader spectrum of antibodies that did the antiglobulin tests with quail erythrocytes. The antiglobulin test with quail erythrocytes seems the most cost-efficient and convenient test to monitor xenoantibody formation in this animal model.