Nonbreed Specificity of Tolerance to Skin Homografts in Chickens

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Abstract
Summary: Evidence is presented which indicates that some tolerance of skin homografts may be obtained in noninbred chickens by an embryonic injection of blood from a breed other than that of the skin donor. Sixteen AW chicks given blood (0.3–0.35 ml) from AW embryos on the 14th day of incubation and grafted 2 days after hatching with skin from 2-day-old GL and BR chicks showed a better survival of grafts than untreated AW and AL chicks whose skin was exchanged at 2 days. Thirteen WL embryos injected with NH embryo blood and 15 NH embryos injected with WL embryo blood and grafted 2 days after hatching with 2-day-old BR skin showed much greater tolerance than controls (BR skin on untreated NH and WL chicks). Possible explanations for such nonbreed-specific induction of tolerance are discussed.