Red cell volume distribution curves and intracellular globin chain precipitation in the alpha-thalassaemic mouse, Hbath-J.

Red cell volume distribution curves were studied in alpha-thalassaemic mice (Hbath-J/+ mice) and normal mice (+/+ mice) of various ages. Individual Hbath-J/+ mice could not be reliably distinguished from their +/+ littermates on the basis of modal cell volume either at birth or during the first 3 weeks of life. However, between the ages of 4 and 30 weeks Hbath-J/+ mice displayed a degree of microcytosis that enabled them to be readily distinguished from their normal littermates using the criterion of modal red cell volume.

Localized eosinophilic fasciitis in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis.

A case of eosinophilic fasciitis localized to the left thenar eminence in a patient with active rheumatoid arthritis is described for the first time. The clinical and pathologic similarities to localized forms of scleroderma, and the features that help to distinguish these conditions are discussed.

Abrogation of resistance to bone marrow transplantation by induction of specific tolerance in natural killer cells?

Hybrid resistance describes the capacity of first generation (F1) hybrids between certain mouse strains to inhibit the growth of tumour or haematopoietic cells of parental origin. The cells that appear to mediate this phenomenon differ from classical T and B lymphocytes in several respects. For example, they are unusually radioresistant, show no immunological memory, are present in thymectomized or congenitally athymic mice, are not functional until about 3 weeks after birth.

The effect of T lymphocyte depletion on neonatal tolerance induction, graft-vs.-host disease and cellular chimerism.

Treatment with a monoclonal anti-Thy-1 antibody and complement completely prevented C57BL spleen cells from causing graft-vs.-host disease following their inoculation into newborn CBA mice. The proportion of mice that became tolerant to C57BL antigens, as measured by skin grafting, was significantly less compared with mice given (CBA X C57BL)F1 hybrid cells.

Specific unresponsiveness to fully allogeneic kidney allografts in rats induced by procarbazine hydrochloride and antilymphocyte serum.

A short course of procarbazine hydrochloride (PCH; 50 mg/kg) and antilymphocyte serum (ALS; 5 ml/kg), administered to Lewis (LEW;RT1(1] rats in the first week following transplantation of Brown Norway (BN;RT1n) kidneys, substantially prolonged allograft survival and induced long-term survival in 62% of the grafts. The two agents acted synergistically, in that neither of them administered alone had much effect. Graft recipients did not produce detectable cytotoxic antibodies and antigen-reactive cells injected i.

Tolerance, immunocompetence, and secondary disease in fully allogeneic radiation chimeras.

The aim of this study was to ascertain the extent to which secondary disease and mortality in fully allogeneic chimeras (C57BL leads to CBA) is caused (if at all) by a delayed graft-versus-host reaction. Adult CBA males were thymectomized, irradiated, and reconstituted with T-lymphocyte-depleted C57BL or CBA bone marrow cells (BMC), followed three weeks after irradiation by implantation under the kidney capsule of thymic lobes from C57BL or CBA fetal or adult donors. These mice were observed for the development of secondary disease for periods in excess of 250 days, and they were examined at 5 weeks or 4 months for T lymphocyte reactivity and tolerance to alloantigens, using the cell-mediated lympholysis assay (CML).

Host recognition of fetal antigens: do they induce specific antibodies?

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the protection afforded to adult mice against the induction and growth of 3-methylcholanthrene-induced tumours by prior exposure to syngeneic fetal cells has an immunological basis. Adult CBA mice were inoculated with fetal cells according to a variety of protocols and the sera were tested for their ability to bind to fetal and adult tissue cells, using a staphylococcal protein A binding assay. All 10 sera tested showed some degree of binding though this varied from strong to weak, and there was some cross-reactivity with adult thymic cells but relatively little with adult spleen cells.

Suppression of natural cell-mediated cytotoxicity in man by maternal and neonatal serum.

the natural cytotoxicity of cells prepared from the blood of human neonates and women at the time of parturition was investigated, using a 4 hr 51Cr release assay and two established cell lines as targets. Although cord cells proved to be cytotoxic, the overall level was distinctly lower than that of normal adult cells. Whereas adult cells from males gave higher levels of cytotoxicity compared with cells from females, this was not the case for cord cells.

Supposed lamarckian inheritance of immunological tolerance.

The notion that an adaptation acquired during an organism's lifetime can somehow be imprinted on the genome and so become heritable has been faulted by every critical test to which it has hitherto been exposed, but many naturalists have lost their faith in what seems to them to be the all-encompassing explanatory glibness of neo-darwinism. Although this criticism is unfair it is entirely proper that neo-darwinism should be under constant critical scrutiny. Interest was therefore aroused by the claim of Gorczynski and Steele that tolerance of A strain antigens induced in CBA mice by injecting into them (CBA x A/J)F1 spleen and bone marrow cells could be transmitted down the male line.