Prolonged survival of mouse skin allografts in recipients treated with donor splenocytes and antibody to CD40 ligand.

Combined treatment with antibody against CD40 ligand and one transfusion of donor splenocytes prolonged survival of fully mismatched BALB/c skin allografts on C57BL/6 recipients, with approximately 20% of grafts surviving > 100 days. In vitro alloresponsiveness in treated animals was reduced in the immediate post-transplantation period, but by day 100 was increased despite the presence of a successful allograft. The presence of alloreactivity on day 100 was confirmed in vivo by adoptive transfer, which suggests that our protocol had induced either a state of "split tolerance" or "graft accommodation." Mice with skin grafts that had survived for > or = 100 days revealed no evidence of lymphoid chimerism. Treatment with donor splenocytes and antibody against CD40 ligand permits long-term survival of highly antigenic donor skin allografts despite the presence of functionally intact alloreactive lymphocytes.