Abstract
SYNOPSIS. Productive research with three amphibian orders has yielded numerous insightsinto the phylogeny of lymphoid systems, immunoglobulin production and structure, and transplantation alloantigens and the immune responses they elicit. In this review of amphibian transplantation biology, evolutionary significance has been placed on the differential survival rates of first- and second-set grafts in normal and immunosuppressed urodeles, apodans, and anurans. In the absence of a major histocompatibility complex, apodans and urodeles typically reject skin allografts and xenografts chronically; median survival times range from 30 to 55 days. Manyorgans (heart, gonads, pituitaries, eyes) transplanted across the weaker histocompatibility barriers in salamanders survive for longer than a year. Two Diemictylus subspecies, however, reject skin grafts (but not heart grafts) somewhat more vigorously in a subacute fashion. Primitive anurans such as Xenopus also reject skin grafts in this fashion. Only representatives of the phylogenetically advanced Ranidae respond to skin and other organ allografts in an acute fashion comparable to the mammalian response elicited by strong histocompatibility antigens.
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