CUTTING EDGE - LINKED SUPPRESSION OF SKIN-GRAFT REJECTION CAN OPERATETHROUGH INDIRECT RECOGNITION

Adult mice can be rendered immunologically tolerant of allogeneic tiss ues if transplanted under cover of mAbs to CD4 and CD8, Tolerance gene rated in this manner is characterized by the presence of regulatory CD 4(+) T cells that can recruit naive T cells to become tolerant also th rough ''infectious tolerance.'' Regulatory CD4(+) T cells can also sup press rejection of third party transplant Ags provided they are expres sed on the same graft as the tolerated Ags, This process of linked sup pression can act across whole MHC barriers and represents a powerful m echanism with therapeutic potential. Tolerance can also be induced to reprocessed minor transplantation Ags presented through host APCs (ind irect recognition). We here demonstrate that linked suppression can al so be induced through the indirect pathway. This finding may be import ant in the development of transplantation tolerance in the clinic.