Significance of the cellular component of the maternal immunologic endowment in milk
Head, J.R.; Beer, A.E.; Billingham, R.E.
Transplantation Proceedings 9(2): 1465-1471
1977
ISSN/ISBN: 0041-1345 PMID: 327642 Document Number: 120293
The influence of genetic origin of milk received by neonatal Dark-Agouti (DA) rats on their tolerance to F1 cellular antigens was studied. Neonates of DA strain were raised by their mothers as a control group or were fostered immediately after birth by Fischer (FI) X DA F1 hybrids. All neonates received an intravenous injection of 10, 5 or 2.5 million viable bone marrow cells from (FI X DA)F1 hybrid donors within 24 h of birth and at 25 days of age were challenged with skin allografts from adult FI donors. The genetic origin of the ingested milk significantly influenced the level and incidence of tolerance observed. The inoculum of 10 million cells to the control group induced a high degree of tolerance in 56% and resulted in long-standing tolerance in 80% of the fostered neonates. Further experiments involving the hairless mutant 'nude' strain of mouse, which is congenitally athymic and functionally T-cell deficient, showed that T-cells are transferred from mother to offspring via the milk. Histological studies have also shown that leucocytes extracted from the neonatal rat stomach are healthy in appearance and functional and presumably survive transit through the gastro-intesintal tract.