Protection against fulminant sepsis in splenectomized mice by implantation of autochthonous splenic tissue.

Infection of splenectomized mice with Diplococcus pneumoniae, type III, resulted in a fourfold higher mortality rate than did infection of normal mice. Splenectomized animals were protected against fulminant, fatal sepsis by subcutaneous transplantation of autochthonous splenic tissue at the time of splenectomy. Animals with ectopic splenic tissue, and sham-splenectomized control mice, exhibited normal serum opsonin and leukophilic gamma-globulin activity, with respect to pneumococcus, that was lacking in splenectomized animals.