Treatment of NZB/W F1 mice with NZW splenic T cells or with serum of mice experiencing the graft-versus-host reaction: Suppression of ongoing anti-double-stranded (ds) DNA antibody formation and improvement of renal function

Abstract Seven-month-old NZB/W F 1 mice were inoculated with 5 × 10 7 NZW spleen cells. The mice so treated showed a clear fall of anti-double-stranded (ds) DNA antibody titers accompanied by a decrease in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration. Mice so treated showed markedly increased survival times (more than 17 months) compared with untreated controls (mean ± SD 8.38 ± 0.75 months). A cell fractionation study suggested that T cells among NZW spleen cells play a major role. Recipients of the unfractionated or the T-cell fraction of NZW spleen cells had histologically less glomerulonephritis than untreated control NZB/W F 1 mice. NZW B-cell transfer to NZB/W F 1 mice had no effect. Serum obtained from NZB/W F 1 mice receiving NZW spleen cells 10 days previously (graft-vs-host (GVHR) serum) was injected into 8-month-old NZB/W F 1 mice. A clear fall in anti-ds DNA antibody titers and inhibition of age-associated sharp increases in BUN were observed. The mean life span of these mice (10.50 ± 0.58 months) was significantly longer than that of untreated controls (8.69 ± 0.38 months). GVHR serum had the ability to suppress anti-ds DNA antibody formation by NZB/W F 1 spleen cells in vitro . Allogeneic GVHR serum prepared in C57Bl/6 × DBA/2 (BDF 1 ) mice by transferring C57Bl/6 spleen cells was also efeective in suppressing anti-ds DNA antibody formation in vitro .