PROLONGATION OF SURVIVAL OF PRIMARY RENAL-ALLOGRAFTS BY FEEDING OF DONOR SPLEEN-CELLS

We have found that feeding Brown Norway (BN) rat spleen cells to Lewis rats prior to transplanting BN kidneys prolongs allograft survival (m ean: 8.8 days in unfed rats, 21 days in the EN cell-fed rats; longest survival: 11 days without allo-feeding vs. 37 days with feeding), We h ave also found that feeding BN cells both before and after transplanta tion further extends survival (mean: 38 days; longest survival: 105 da ys). We also examined the cells infiltrating the grafts during the ear ly stages of the allograft response (day 5), Using flow cytometry, we found a significant decrease in the number of leukocytes infiltrating the transplanted kidneys of fed animals. This decrease was mainly due to a drop in the number of infiltrating T cells. We also found that cy tokine mRNA production by the graft-infiltrating lymphocytes, assessed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, showed a signific ant increase in interleukin-4 and transforming growth factor-beta mRNA in the graft-infiltrating lymphocytes of fed animals compared with th e controls.