Mitigation of graft-versus-host disease in lethally irradiated mice grafted with spleen cells adherent to glass beads.
Murine spleen cells were separated on the basis of adherence to glass beads into distinct subpopulations that differ in their ability to produce acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Nonadherent CBA spleen cells produce acute GVHD in 6-10 days in lethally irradiated (C57BL/6 X CBA)F1 mice as do unfractionated spleen cells. Spleen cells which are adherent to glass beads, however, enable 71% of the mice to survive without symptomatology of acute GVHD. The low proliferative response of these cells to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) correlated with the mitigated GVHD seen in animals grafted with this fraction. Proliferative cells as determined by the spleen colony assay and the in vitro agar colony-forming assay are present in this fraction as are cells responsive to mitogenic stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). B6CBF1 mice grafted with CBA adherent cells exhibit a gradual return over a period of 5 months to normal PHA and LPS stimulation levels as shown by splenic cell responses of these mice to mitogens. Surviving mice grafted with adherent cells were chimeric as determined by electrophoretic hemoglobin pattern analysis and serial bone marrow transplantation.
Mitigation of graft-versus-host disease in lethally irradiated mice grafted with spleen cells adherent to glass beads. Murine spleen cells were separated on the basis of adherence to glass beads into distinct subpopulations that differ in their ability to produce acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Nonadherent CBA spleen cells produce acute GVHD in 6-10 days in lethally irradiated (C57BL/6 X CBA)F1 mice as do unfractionated spleen cells. Spleen cells which are adherent to glass beads, however, enable 71% of the mice to survive without symptomatology of acute GVHD. The low proliferative response of these cells to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) correlated with the mitigated GVHD seen in animals grafted with this fraction. Proliferative cells as determined by the spleen colony assay and the in vitro agar colony-forming assay are present in this fraction as are cells responsive to mitogenic stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). B6CBF1 mice grafted with CBA adherent cells exhibit a gradual return over a period of 5 months to normal PHA and LPS stimulation levels as shown by splenic cell responses of these mice to mitogens. Surviving mice grafted with adherent cells were chimeric as determined by electrophoretic hemoglobin pattern analysis and serial bone marrow transplantation.