Tolerance to Skin Homografts of Adult Mice after Parabiosis

Abstract

SKIN grafts between mice of different inbred strains are invariably rejected within a few weeks. Hybrid (F 1) tissues transplanted to mice of either parental strain are also consistently rejected at the same rate if the parents differ at the H-2 histocompatibility locus1. This uniform incompatibility was not apparent when such hybrids were united in parabiosis with parental strain inbred mice. The most frequent result of such unions was the death of only the hybrid partner, usually within a month. Hybrid death in this period was characteristically preceded by a severe wasting disease, sometimes described as ‘parabiotic intoxication’2.