Rejection of a transplantable Marek's disease lymphoma in normal versus immunologically deficient chickens
Calnek, B.W.; Fabricant, J.; Schat, K.A.; Murthy, K.K.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 60(3): 623-631
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0027-8874 PMID: 304897 Document Number: 137761
Normal and immunosuppressed N-line chickens were challenged at 7 days of age with a transplantable Marek's disease (MD) lymphoma. They were immunosuppressed by embryonal bursectomy (BX), neonatal thymectomy (TX), cyclophosphamide (CY) administration, a combination of BX and TX or TX and CY administration, or neonatal infection with virulent MD virus. The transplant cells were of N-line origin. In all normal intact chicks, progressively growing palpable tumours at the inoculation site appeared, usually by 6-8 days; these regressed in most birds between 14 and 18 days after inoculation. Many birds in which transplanted tumours regressed later developed visceral lymphomas. Transplanted tumour growth and rejection were unaffected by TX or CY treatments, but the combined TX and CY treatment and prior MD virus infection delayed tumour rejection. Bursectomized chicks developed fewer palpable tumours and these regressed more rapidly than those in intact birds. Both BX and CY treatments reduced the prevalence of MD during 10 weeks. The enhanced transplant rejection in bursectomised chicks could have been due to "blocking" antibody, but the rejection pattern was not altered by repeated injections of serum from chicks with tumours or from chicks with tumours that regressed. Injections of convalescent serum from MD virus-exposed birds enhanced the rejection of transplants in intact birds.