RESTRICTION-FRAGMENT-LENGTH-POLYMORPHISM ANALYSIS OF THE MAJOR HISTOCOMPATIBILITY COMPLEX IN NEW-ZEALAND WHITE-RABBITS

As a model system, rabbits are particularly useful in transplantation studies because of their size and accessibility, However, inbred rabbi ts of known MHC haplotype are not commercially available, and there ar e few monoclonal antibody reagents available to permit serological typ ing of experimental animals prior to transplant. Here we present a rap id and reliable method to distinguish rabbits that differ at their MHC class I and class II loci, and present 34 class I and 16 class II hap lotypes determined by restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysi s of outbred heterozygous rabbits. The applicability of this molecular typing system to transplantation experiments in the New Zealand White rabbit is discussed.