Abstract
Summary
Thymectomized and nonoperated adult mice were give a potentially lethal dose of X radiation and protected with allogeneic fetal liver cells. Immunoglobulins of donor as well as host type were found in the sera of the thymectomized and intact hosts as early as 30 days after irradiation. Note added in proof: Additional chimeras have been produced using fetal liver cells from 14-21 day C57B1/6 X C57B1/6 embryos. All of these mice, thymectomized (21) as well as intact (10) had significant quantities of donor-type y-globu-lins in their sera. These mice were sensitized to a synthetic polypeptide (TGAL) and their sera were tested for total and in three instances for donor-type anti-TGAL antibody. All of the fetal liver cell chimeras (intact thymus) produced specific antibody (10/10), while none of the thymectomized chimeras (0/21) had detectable antibody. Of the three mice tested in the intact-thymus group, from 10% to 75% of the specific antibody was of donor origin.
We wish to express our appreciation to G. M. Iverson and M. Peacock for technical assistance.
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