Passive transfer of transplantation immunity

Abstract

The time necessary for the breakdown of a lymphosarcoma is measured in a stock of genetically uniform non-susceptible mice. This breakdown time is measured by allowing grafts of the tumour to lie in the non-susceptible mice for different lengths of time, and then transplanting the grafts into susceptible mice to test their viability. If the non-susceptible mice are immunized by previous inoculation with the tumour, the breakdown time is considerably accelerated. The breakdown time of the tumour is then tested in non-susceptible mice which have received various tissues from immunized mice of the same stock. By this test, serum, peritoneal exudate and lymphocyte suspensions from immunized animals do not confer immunity, nor is immunity transferred from immunized females to their offspring. Immunity is, however, transferred by grafts of lymph nodes from immunized animals, and this transfer is shown to be genuinely passive. The power to transfer immunity lasts only a short time following implantation of the tumour, and is confined to the nodes draining the site of implantation.