Bone marrow transplantation across major histocompatability barriers in mice. III. Treatment of donor grafts with monoclonal antibodies directed against Lyt determinants.

We studied the effect of eliminating T cells from donor grafts of mice in a system in which bone marrow was transplanted across major histocompatibility barriers. BALB/c bone marrow (added as a source of hematopoietic stem cells) combined with equal volumes of spleen cells (added as a source of GVHD-promoting cells) was pretreated in vitro with monoclonal anti-Lyt-1.2 or Lyt-2.2 plus absorbed rabbit complement before injection into C57BL/6 total-body-irradiated recipients. Functional activity of anti-Lyt monoclonal antibodies was determined in CML assay. Treatment with anti Lyt-1.2 plus C did not have any anti-stem cell activity, as measured by CFU-S assay, and protected recipients from the onset of lethal GVHD. Treatment with Lyt-2.2 plus C also did not reduce CFU-S; however, mice receiving treated marrow did develop GVHD and were all dead by 2 mo, as were untreated control mice. Surviving "anti-Lyt-1.2 + C chimeras" demonstrated a high percentage of donor mononuclear cells in their peripheral blood. Similar results were obtained when C3H/HeN donor BMS was treated with monoclonal anti-Lyt-1.1 plus C and injected into C57BL/6 recipients. These findings show that monoclonal antibodies directed against determinants unrelated to Thy-1 can eliminate T cells in the presence of C and successfully protect transplanted mice from lethal GVHD. They also suggest that these anti-Lyt antibodies may be useful tools in determining subpopulations of T cells that contribute to the development of GVHD.