Thymocyte reconstitution of athymic and athymic-asplenic mice: graft rejection and antibody synthesis.

Hereditarily athymic and athymic-asplenic mice were reconstituted with syngeneic thymocytes at various times prior to and after tumor challenge. These mice were able to reject heterotransplanted human tumors in as little as 19 days after thymocyte transfer but were unable to do so when the thymocytes were given 7 days after tumor implantation. The humoral immunity of athymic nude mice was fully restored as determined by the primary immune response to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC), a thymocyte-dependent antigen. Athymic-asplenic mice failed to respond to SRBC after reconstitution and this was attributed to the absence of the spleen in these mice.