Blood, 1959, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 548-557.
© 1959 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
Immunologic Mechanisms in Heavily Irradiated Mice
Treated with Bone Marrow
J. W. HOLLINGSWORTH 1 and
Mary C. Perfetto B.S.1
1 Medical Service of the Veterans Administration Hospital, West Haven,
Conn., and the Department of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New
Haven, Conn.
1. Humoral antibody production has been studied in severely irradiated
mice treated with isologous (same strain) or homologous (different strain)
bone marrow.
2. The two methods of study involved functional end points of humoral
antibody production as evidenced by in vivo lysis of rat erythrocytes or by
regression of mouse leukosis E.L. 4 in histoincompatible mouse recipients.
3. Humoral antibody production was lost after irradiation and isologous
marrow treatment, but recovered partially in two weeks and almost completely in four weeks.
4. Established immunity was not abruptly terminated after irradiation and
treatment with either isologous or homologous marrow, although there was
premature loss of immunity to rat erythrocytes by the irradiated, isologous
marrow-treated mouse.
5. Permanent immunity could not be transferred by isologous marrow or
spleen from immunized donors to irradiated recipients.
6. Treatment of mice histoincompatible to E.L. 4 leukosis with histocompatible donor bone marrow failed to establish rejection of the tumor.
7. These studies support the concept that humoral antibody production in
irradiated, marrow-treated mice remains a function of the host rather than
of the transplanted tissues.
8. These studies failed to clarify the conflicting evidence concerning the
mechanism of the late illness that occurs after treatment of the irradiated
mouse with bone marrow from a different strain or species.
Submitted on June 25, 1958
Accepted on November 1, 1958
