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Specific B Cell Tolerance Is Induced by Cyclosporin A Plus Donor-Specific Blood Transfusion Pretreatment: Prolonged Survival of MHC Class I Disparate Cardiac Allografts¹

Immunology Research Group, Biological Sciences, Medical School, Manchester, United Kingdom

Donor-specific blood transfusion (DST), designed to prolong allograft survival, sensitized recipients of the high-responder PVG-RT1^u strain, resulting in accelerated rejection of MHC-class I mismatched (PVG-R8) allografts. Rejection was found to be mediated by anti-MHC class I (A^a) alloantibody. By pretreating recipients 4 wk before grafting with cyclosporin A (CsA) daily (x7), combined with once weekly (x4) DST, rejection was prevented. The investigation explores the mechanism for this induced unresponsiveness. CD4 T cells purified from the thoracic duct of CsA/DST-pretreated RT1^u rats induced rejection when transferred to R8 heart-grafted RT1^u athymic nude recipients, indicating that CD4 T cells were not tolerized by the pretreatment. To determine whether B cells were affected, nude recipients were pretreated, in the absence of T cells, with CsA/DST (or CsA/third party blood) 4 wk before grafting. The subsequent transfer of normal CD4 T cells induced acute rejection of R8 cardiac allografts in third party- but not DST-pretreated recipients; prolonged allograft survival was reversed by the cotransfer of B cells with the CD4 T cells. Graft survival correlated with reduced production of anti-MHC class I (A^a) cytotoxic alloantibody. The results indicated that the combined pretransplant treatment of CsA and DST induced tolerance in allospecific B cells independently of T cells. The resulting suppression of allospecific cytotoxic Ab correlated with the survival of MHC class I mismatched allografts. The induction of B cell tolerance by CsA has important implications for clinical transplantation.