Modulation of Adoptively Transferred Viable Motheaten Pathology in Sublethally Irradiated Normal Recipient Mice by Normal Hematopoietic Cells

Abstract "Adoptive me v " chimeras were created by grafting hematopoietic cells (HC) from B6 viable motheaten ( me v ) mice into bg or wild sublethally irradiated (SI) mice; the chimeras developed me v -type symptoms such as paw inflammation and necrosis, lung damage, thymus atrophy, and high serological IgM concentration and autoantibody levels as well as rapid death. The phenotype of adoptive me v mice could be obtained even after two to three successive passages into SI mice (Kuntz et al .. 1991. Immunology 73, 356). In the present study, mixed HC transfer experiments showed that bg or wild HC could not prevent or delay neither the serological symptoms nor the pathology conferred by cotransferred me v HC. Nevertheless, when cotransferred with adoptive me v chimera HC, bg or wild HC could block the development of the pathology and the morbidity, although only delayed the emergence of the serological abnormalities. This shows that the differentiation of me v HC in a bg or wild normal-type environment does not allow the maintenance of all me v HC-dependent abnormalities.