Genetics of histocompatibility in mice. III. Characteristics of the popliteal lymph-node response to minor (non-H-2) H antigens.

The response to spleen cells incompatible at defined histocompatibility, H, loci was studied using the popliteal lymph-node enlargement test to establish its applicability as a method for detecting minor H antigens. This test was able to detect H-2 and H-Y antigens as well as most of the minor H antigens represented by 23 different strains congenic with C57BL/6By. Responses of both naive and immunized recipients were examined, and time-courses of the response were obtained for ten donor strains. These curves revealed that different antigens elicited responses that differed in timing and magnitude of peak enlargements, and that the two parameters were not closely correlated. Both the peak magnitude and the slope of the primary response were correlated with skin-graft rejection, however. The response to individual minor antigens did not appear to be dose-dependent above a threshold. Irradiation of donor cells had strain-dependent effects on the elicited response. Irradiation of recipients appeared to abrogate the primary response but not the responses of previously primed recipients in the combination tested. None of the responses studied had any demonstrable graft-versus-host component.