Functional Capacity of Bone Marrow Modified by Contact With Antigenic Substances

Summary

The inoculation of allogeneic, yet compatible, marrow into lethally irradiated C57BL and C57L mice permits as good early and late survivals as does inoculation of syngeneic marrow. If the marrow is pre-incubated in vitro with marrow or erythrocytes of the recipient type, however, early or late survival may be reduced, depending on the strain of the recipient. Moreover, the success of C57BL syngeneic marrowtransplantation is compromised to varying degrees by in vitro preincubation with cellular and noncellular antigensas well as by compatible but allogeneic cells. These results confirm and extend the findings previously reported with incompatible allogeneic mouse strain combinations of the same histocompatibility-2 genotypes. The striking modification of the functional capacity of the marrow inoculum preincubated with erythrocyte antigens is further evidenced by 1) the development of a late mortality from a secondary disease-like syndrome in some recipients of otherwise syngeneic marrow (an apparent reaction against self), 2) the establishment of “tolerance” among other recipients of the transplanted syngeneic marrow cells (a failure to recognize the allogeneic cells, with which it was incubated, as foreign), and 3) a “sensitization” in some cases producing a late mortality from a graft-versus-host reaction not normally seen after compatible allogeneic marrow transplants. Thus the permanent alteration of marrow cell function by exposure to antigens in vitro is apparently not a phenomenon limited to tissue antigen.