Immunological Homograft Enhancement. Interactions of Antiserum and Skin and Tumor Homografts

Summary C3H mouse skin and the C3H tumor B.P.8 were both placed as homografts in the same B6D2F1 mice, which were also treated with an antiserum directed against histocompatibility antigens of the donor tissues. The amount and duration of antiserum treatment was varied, as was the relative time of the two graftings. The tumor was readily enhanced by antiserum, but it was possible only with difficulty to demonstrate any enhancement of skin graft survival by antiserum injection. Growth of the B.P.8 tumor was enhanced by doses of antiserum that had no demonstrable effect on the rejection of a simultaneously applied C3H skin homograft. When the skin grafts were applied 10 or 15 days before the tumor cell inoculum, the tumor tended to show accelerated rejection despite simultaneous injection the growth of tumor in control animals. The results of these and other findings presented here are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that an efferent mechanism is responsible for the immunological enhancement of homografts.