Induced tolerance in F1 rats to anti-major histocompatibility complex receptors on parental T cells. Implications for self tolerance.

The immunogenicity of cell surface markers associated with specific anti-major histocompatibility complex (MHC) alloreactivity of rat peripheral T lymphocyte subpopulations has been demonstrated in the past by the ability of such cell populations to induce a profound and specific resistance to systemic graft-vs.-host (GVH) disease in adult rats. Our studies demonstrate that these specificity-associated anti-MHC parental strain T cell markers are also tolerogenic; if small numbers of parental strain T cells are administered to newborn F1 rats, they result in the specific inability to induce GVH resistance later on in adult life. Moreover, unlike normal animals, these F1 rats are extremely sensitive to systemic GVH disease caused by T cells from the original donor parental strain.