Graft-vs-Host Inhibition

Abstract

Abstract An in vitro treatment of immunocompetent cells was tested in an effort to prevent graft-vs-host (GVH) disease and to promote survival of allogenic radiation chimeras. Spleen cells from adult strain-A mice were mixed and incubated for 1 hr at 37°C with liver cells from 5-day-old strain-A mice. There was no apparent decrease in hematopoietic stem cell function in the incubated liver and spleen cell mixtures when compared with stem cell function in separate cell suspensions maintained at 4°C. Severe GVH disease occurred when fresh strain-A spleen cells were given to lethally irradiated CBA mice. No mice survived longer than 33 days. Incubation of spleen cells alone for 1 hr at 37°C or incubation of liver-spleen cell mixtures for 1 hr at 4°C did not appreciably improve survival. Incubation of spleen cells alone for 2 hr at 37°C caused improved 30-day survival of the allogeneic radiation chimeras. Significant inhibition of GVH disease was also observed when lethally irradiated CBA mice were treated with strain-A spleen cells that had been incubated with strain-A liver cells for 1 hr at 37°C.