Mechanisms of transplantation tolerance in B-cell-chimeric chickens. Impairment of tolerance by T cell growth factor.

Transplantation tolerance was induced in cyclophosphamide-treated, B-cell-depleted chickens by transfer of allogeneic bursal cells. To study the presence of specific suppressor cells in tolerant birds, mitomycin-C-treated peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from tolerant recipients were cocultured in mixed lymphocyte cultures of normal syngeneic responder and allogeneic stimulator cells. No evidence of suppression was detected, since responses in cultures with tolerant cocultured cells were on the same level as the mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) of normal responders without cocultured cells. However, responses in cultures with normal cocultured cells were significantly higher. If cocultured cells were not treated with mitomycin C, responses to tolerizing alloantigen were equally high in cultures with tolerant cocultured cells as in cultures with normal cocultured cells. Likewise, when lymphocytes from tolerant chickens were mixed with normal syngeneic cells in graft-versus-host (GVH) splenomegaly assay, no suppression was detected, but the GVH reaction was even stronger than the reaction induced by the mixture of cells from two normal chickens. Furthermore, administration of chicken T cell growth factor (TCGF) into the cultures enhanced considerably the MLR of tolerant cells against the tolerizing alloantigen, but not against syngeneic or third-party stimulator cells. These results indicate that the transplantation tolerance in B-cell-chimeric chickens is due to lack of alloantigen-specific helper cells. When exogenous help is offered to tolerant cells either by normal syngeneic cells or by exogenous TCGF, the reactivity of tolerant cells against the tolerogen is reestablished.