Lymphoid organ production of immunomodulatory eicosanoids in mice resistant to neonatal tolerance induction

Neonatally induced tolerance of class I and class II alloantigens is difficult to achieve in certain I-E non-expressing hosts that receive semiallogeneic cells at birth from strains of mice that express I-E molecules. Although clonal deletion occurs ubiquitously after infusion of the tolerogen-bearing inoculum, the majority of these mice ultimately regain the capacity to reject donor-specific skin graft challenges in adulthood and this is associated with a reacquisition of I-E recognizing and alloreactive T cells as well as a loss of donor chimeric cells. In this study, we determined whether production levels of the eicosanoids prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2 ) and thromboxane B 2 (TxB 2 ), both potent modifiers of lymphocyte function, were altered in lymphoid organs concomitant with a breakdown of tolerance in these mice