Differences in susceptibility to rejection of mouse pancreatic islet allografts disparate for class I or class II major histocompatibility antigens.

Pancreatic islet B cells express class I but not class II antigens, and removal of Ia positive passenger cells from H-2 allogeneic islets by anti-Ia serum and complement leads to permanent allograft survival. A test was made of whether the same result can be achieved by genetically removing the Ia stimulus by performing mouse islet allografts in congenic donor-recipient combinations differing at the H-2 K only, D only, or K + D regions. Mice disparate for class I antigens (H-2 K, D, and K + D) alone reject islet allografts, suggesting that Ia positive passenger cells may be involved in presentation of class I disparities. Established islet allografts appear to be sensitive to rejection induced by injection of donor strain splenocytes when donor and recipient differ for class I (H-2 D alone and D + I) but not class II (H-2 I alone) antigens. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that pancreatic islet allografts do not express class II target antigens, but do express class I antigens that in long-established pancreatic islet allografts are capable of acting as targets but not in initiating an immune response.