Administration of anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody with intrathymic injection of alloantigen results in rat cardiac allograft tolerance.

BACKGROUND: We have previously reported the induction of donor-specific tolerance to cardiac allografts after intrathymic injection of alloantigen with simultaneous administration of antilymphocyte serum treatment to eliminate peripheral T cells. The present study determines whether prolongation of a fully major histocompatibility complex-mismatched cardiac allograft is achieved after a single administration of anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody (MoAb) combined with intrathymic injection of alloantigen. METHODS: Male Buffalo rats were given Lewis splenocytes via the intrathymic or intravenous route in combination with a single administration of anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody (OX-38) or anti-CD8 MoAb (OX-8) or both. Heterotopic cardiac transplantation was performed 21 days after intrathymic alloantigen or MoAb pretreatment or both. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis determined changes in lymphocyte compartment T-cell subsets, and in vitro studies examined recipient cellular reactivity. RESULTS: By 21 days after anti-CD4 MoAb treatment earlier nonspecific immunosuppression had resolved with 80% recovery of peripheral CD4+ T cells and restoration of recipient immunocompetence to allow normal rejection of a cardiac allograft. Combined treatment with intrathymic, but not intravenous, alloantigen plus anti-CD4 MoAb induced donor-specific tolerance to subsequent rat cardiac allografts. However, anti-CD8 MoAb combined with intrathymic alloantigen failed to induce tolerance despite a profound depletion of the CD8+ T-cell subset. CONCLUSIONS: Combined treatment of rats with intrathymic donor alloantigen and a single administration of anti-CD4, but not anti-CD8, MoAb significantly prolongs cardiac allograft survival across a fully major histocompatibility complex mismatched strain combination.

Mediation of skin allograft rejection in scid mice by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells.

We analyzed the role of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in H-2-disparate skin allograft rejection in the mutant mouse strain C.B-17/Icr scid with severe combined immunodeficiency. On the day of skin allografting, scid mice were adoptively transferred with negatively selected CD4+ or CD8+ splenocytes from normal unsensitized C.B-17/Icr mice. These populations were obtained using a double-mAb--plus--complement elimination protocol using anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 mAb that resulted in no detectable CD4+ or CD8+ cells by FACS and negligible numbers of cytolytic T lymphocytes by limiting dilution analysis in anti-CD8 treated populations. Spleen cells were removed from grafted mice at the time of rejection and were tested in vitro for antidonor reactivity in several assays: mixed lymphocyte culture, cell-mediated lympholysis, and LDA for CTL and for IL-2-producing HTL. The presence of Thy 1.2+, CD4+, or CD8+ cells was determined by FACS. All control C.B-17 mice and scid mice adoptively transferred with nondepleted CD4+, and CD8+ cells rejected skin allografts with similar mean survival times (15.6 +/- 1.5, 18.8 +/- 3.4, 18.0 +/- 5.4, respectively), whereas control scid mice retain skin allografts indefinitely (all greater than 100 days). C.B-17 syngeneic grafts survived indefinitely in all groups. At the time of rejection, splenocytes from scid mice receiving CD4+ cells had negligible donor-specific cytotoxicity in CML and negligible numbers of CTL by LDA, but demonstrated a good proliferative response in MLC and IL-2-producing cells by LDA (frequency = 1/1764). There were no detectable CD8+ cells present by FACS analysis. Conversely, splenocytes from scid mice adoptively transferred with CD8+ cells had strong donor-specific cytotoxicity in CML (58.8% +/- 16.1%) and CTL by LDA (frequency = 1/3448), but no significant proliferation was detected in MLC. There were no detectable CD4+ cells by FACS, but there were small numbers of IL-2-producing cells by LDA (frequency = 1/10,204). These data demonstrate that CD4+ cells adoptively transferred into scid mice are capable of mediating skin allograft rejection in the absence of any detectable CD8+ cells or significant functional cytolytic activity. The adoptive transfer of CD8+ cells also results in skin allograft rejection in the absence of detectable CD4+ cells. The detection of small numbers of IL-2 secreting cells in these mice may indicate that CD(8+)-mediated allograft rejection in this model is dependent on IL-2-secreting CD8+ cells.