Importance of T cells to accelerated rejection and acceptance of renal allografts in sensitized rat recipients

Sensitized recipients often experience fulminant allograft loss by yet ill-defined cellular and/or humoral immune mechanisms. In this study, we analyzed the contribution of cellular elements, in particular T cells, to the accelerated rejection of renal allografts in sensitized rats. LEW rats sensitized with BN skin grafts died of uremia in 3.3+/-0.9 days after transplantation of a BN kidney, similarly to bilaterally nephrectomized animals. Adoptive transfer of 10(6) graft-infiltrating mononuclear cells as well as their CD25+ subset into otherwise normal LEW recipients accelerated rejection of BN test cardiac allografts (5.4+/-0.5 days to 6.6+/-0.4 days vs. 7.8+/-0.8 days in controls, P