Skin homograft survival in two strains of mice treated with reciprocal tissue antigen.

The successful transplantation of autologous and isologous tissue has been achieved for many years. However, the ability of an adult host animal to reject a homograft from another adult animal of a different strain within the same species has prevented successful homotransplantation in adult animals. As early as 1953 Billingham and Sparrow' demonstrated that living donor epidermal cells treated with immune serum were rendered incapable of growth when grafted back onto the original donor. Shortly thereafter, Voisin accelerated the homograft rejection of guinea pig A transplants to guinea pig B by injecting the recipient with serum from a rabbit actively immunized against the skin of guinea pig A. This passive immunity to guinea pig A skin transplants could also be transferred to guinea pig A and to guinea pig C. Further manifestations of a skin-specific antigen were discovered when the rabbit developed alopecia, epithelium thinning, and necrosis of superficial hair follicles. In 1960, this auto-allergic phenomenon was confirmed by Chytilova et al.' Further indications that the immunological response of the host to a homograft plays an important role in determining the time survival of the homograft were noted when Medawar demonstrated that specific leukocytes could immunize males and females against the graft; when Bollage0 detected antibodies in the recipient's serum to the tissue extracts of the donor; when Hildemann demonstrated that the survival time of a homograft could be decreased by the injection of various numbers of the homologous spleen cells prior to the homotransplantation; when Muller' induced the clouding of transplanted corneas by