An Attempt to Improve Tolerance to Homografts in Chickens by Selection

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NONAVAILABILITY of histocompatability lines in chickens has restricted their use as suitable genetic material for the study of immunologic and tolerance phenomena. Inbreeding has been practiced in the past (Cock and Clough, 1956; Crittenden et al., 1964; and Hasek et al., 1966) to increase the homograft acceptance in chickens, although complete homozygosity for histocompatibility genes was not reported until recently. Hasek et al. (1966) have been successful in producing histocompatible sublines (CA, CB, CC and CD) of an inbred C line of White Leghorn chickens by further inbreeding and selection for identity in homograft acceptance and erythrocyte antigens.The present work was planned to avoid long term inbreeding and the probable consequences of reduced reproductive ability of chickens (Crittenden et al., 1964; and Hasek et al., 1966). There seemed a good possibility that histocompatible lines with a minimum of inbreeding could be established by selection on the basis of tolerance…