Effect of Synthetic Progestational Agents on Allograft Rejection and Circulating Antibody Production

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Abstract
Castrated adult rabbits received various commercially available synthetic progestational agents as well as progesterone, estradiol and cortisone by a parenteral route. Dosages were calculated to be 5-10 times those used in human therapeutics. Allograft rejection rates were then studied, using 5 mm square ear skin exchanges. All animals treated with cortisone tolerated their allografts for at least 3 weeks. Normal and castrated animals rejected allografts in an average of 9 days. Estradiol and progesterone had no effect on graft survival, nor did the synthetic progestins, 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate and medroxyprogesterone acetate. Norethindrone and norethynodrel, compounds of the “19-nor” group of synthetic progestational agents, were found to significantly prolong allograft survival to an average of 13 days. Circulating antibody production was then provoked by repeated injection of bovine serum albumin in Freund's adjuvant. After immunization was complete, the amount of antibody produced was determined by the quantitative precipitin technique. Castration alone, treatment with estradiol valerate and with 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate did not alter antibody production. Inconclusive data were obtained from animals receiving norethindrone and norethynodrel, but a moderate depression of antibody production was suggested. Treatment with progesterone, medroxyprogesterone acetate and cortisone acetate significantly suppressed circulating antibody production. No difference could be demonstrated between the response of animals receiving medroxyprogesterone and those receiving cortisone. (Endocrinology77: 897, 1965)