The role of bursa of Fabricius and thymus in antibody-mediated allograft rejection in ducks.

Duck immune sera that are capable of destroying the tolerated skin allografts require the presence of functional host's lymphoid cells for a successful course of the rejection reaction. The effective sera are not able to destroy the grafts in birds surgically bursectomized or thymectomized at hatching. This deficiency can be repaired by thymic, not bursal, implants in bursectomized or thymectomized graft hosts. Similarly, measurements of the radioactivity after application of 125I-labelled gamma globulin to allografted or autografted ducklings confirm a major role of the bursa of Fabricius and thymus in the destruction of the tolerated skin allografts by immune serum.