Abstract
Summary
The effect of immunization of donor mice with bacterial antigens, on the capacity of their spleen cells to product graft-vs-host (GVH) disease has been investigated for irradiated adult recipients differing from donors at the H2 locus. Fatal GVH disease produced by spleen cells from untreated control donors was a function of the number of cells transferred. Antigen pretreatment of donors caused a reduction in the capacity of their spleen cells to produce GVH mortality. Compared with equal numbers of cells from untreated mice, the magnitude of this reduction was proportional to the total quantity of antigen used in pretreatment: 1.4 mg of Serratia marcescens polysaccharide (SMP) decreased donor spleen cell reactivity to 1/5 of control levels whereas 0.12 mg produced a decrease of 1/4 and 0.01 mg to somewhat less than 1/2 that of controls. Salmonella enteritidis polysaccharide (SEP) also provided reduction of donor cell GVH reactivity however when employed in similar dosages (SMP 120 μg, SEP 210 μg) SMP was substantially the more active in inhibiting subsequent GVH reactions. In addition, the very low toxicity of SMP permitted its use at much higher and more effective dosages.
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