The Distribution of Rabbit Anti-Mouse Thymus Globulin After Injection into Mice∗

The immunosuppressive action of heterologous antilymphoid sera (ALS) has been well established in the laboratory in various species of animal, and prolongation of survival of allografts of skin (1), kidney (2), and liver (3) and xenografts of tumor (4) has been achieved with their use. Such observations have led to the clinical trial of ALS as an adjunct to more conventional immunosuppressive therapy in the grafting of organs in man (5, 6). Although theories have been formulated as to the mechanism of the immunosuppressive action (7), no definitive explanation has been found. We considered that a study of the distribution of heterologous antilymphoid globulin in vivo after intravenous injection might be contributory in this regard and the distributions of radio labeled gamma globulin and IgG prepared from heterologous antithymus serum were investigated after their parenteral injection. Presented here is a report of the results of these experiments.Materials and Methods. Rabbit anti-mouse thymus sera (RAMT...