PROLONGED SKIN HOMOGRAFT SURVIVAL AND ERYTHROCYTE (B-LOCUS) ANTIGENS IN YOUNG CHICKS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Skin grafts were exchanged in all 30 possible combinations between five Brown and one White Leghorn lines at 8-11 days of age. The Brown Leghorn lines vary in inbreeding coefficients from about 0.31 to 0.74 and are descended from a common base population. They have been selected on different criteria, for 22 to 30 years, however, and are phenotypically dissimilar. The White Leghorn line has been continuously full-sib mated for 30 years. The 354 skin grafts exchanged among these lines showed a non-normal distribution of survival times and were classified as to early rejection (< 18 days) or prolonged survival (≥ 18 days, usually >42 days). Prolonged survival of skin homografts occurred in moderate to high frequency (36 to 100%) in five combinations involving the White Leghorn and two of the Brown Leghorn lines. Of the remaining 25 combinations, 18 had no prolonged survivals and seven had 8-25%. It is concluded that the speed of the skin homograft reaction in young chicks is not useful as an index of total genetic diversity between inbred lines. Two other series of skin graft exchanges were carried out using the more compatible lines as indicated from the initial series. Selected chicks of the first and all chicks surviving to six weeks of age in the other two series were blood-typed at the B-locus. Cross-reaction patterns revealed by 21 reference reagents were used to indicate the number of antigenic properties of the donor not shared by the host and comparisons were made with fate of graft. The results indicate major histocompatibility effects of the B blood typing locus in young chicks. Although the blood typing technique was found useful in predicting histoincompatibility it was only moderately accurate for predicting prolonged survival in 8-11-day-old chicks and was of less value at 16-17 days of age. This partial failure may have been caused by lack of sufficient reference reagents to completely identify all B-locus antigens. However, it is hypothesized that the major factor determining failure in exchanges between birds matched for B-locus antigens involves variation between individuals and also between lines in relative immunological age or sensitivity to stimuli arising from histocompatibility antigens at other loci.