Studies on heterologous anti-lymphocyte serum in mice. II. Effect on the immune response.

Abstract

1. Rabbit anti-A/Jax lymphocyte serum (RAMLS) given to A/Jax mice inhibits the primary and, to some extent, the secondary hemagglutinin response to sheep erythrocytes. 2. RAMLS-treated mice show decreased ability to reject first and second set skin allografts and rat skin xenografts. 3. Prolongation of skin allografts by RAMLS is probably due to a central inhibition of the allograft rejection response. 4. The crude γ-globulin fraction extracted from RAMLS is as effective in inhibiting the allograft response as the whole serum. 5. The ability of RAMLS to inhibit the allograft rejection response is not due to the antibodies to mouse γ-globulin present in the RAMLS. 6. RAMLS is a potent biologic reagent for the induction of states of lymphocyte depletion.