A COMPARISON OF SKIN AND HEART GRAFT REJECTION PATTERNS IN H-2 MUTANT MICE1

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Abstract
Survival times of skin and split heart grafts were compared in H-2 mutant mice, wherein the mutation arose in the Kb,Kb-Ib, or Ld regions. The mutants were defined originally by skin graft rejection and, in this study, parental skin grafts to the different mutants were rejected in 10-18 days; the mean survival time depending on the particular mutant examined. Except for 1 combination, heart grafts were not rejected or were rejected very slowly in periods longer than 25 days. With restricted difference within the murine major histocompatibility complex, skin and heart graft rejection occurs at very different rates. The 1 exception, noted in mutant strain bm6, was of interest in that heart and skin graft rejection occurred at approximately the same time (17 days). The response to this mutant (bm6) was quite different to a supposedly identical mutant (bm5), indicating that minor differences may be present in these 2 mutants. The differences noted between heart and skin with 1st grafts generally disappeared in primed mice, wherein heart grafts were rapidly rejected by mice that had previously rejected a skin graft from the same donor. No 2nd-set response was observed with heart grafts to the bm6 and bm12 mutants, and these grafts survived indefinitely. In several studies where skin grafts were placed on mice bearing heart grafts, the skin grafts also enjoyed prolonged survival, indicating a modification of the immune response by the preceding heart graft.