Allograft tolerance in pigs after fractionated lymphoid irradiation. II. Kidney graft after conventional total lymphoid irradiation and bone marrow cell grafting

Experiments with pigs have been performed in order to establish bone marrow chimerism and kidney graft tolerance between SLA genotyped semi-incompatible animals. Recipients were conditioned by means of conventional fractionated total lymphoid irradiation (TLI) delivered by a vertical cobalt source. The principal lymphoid regions of the pig, including thymus and spleen, were submitted to irradiation. Two protocols were tested: A = 250 cGy four times a week x 13 times (TLI) (two animals) and B = 350 cGy three times a week x 8 times (TLI) (four animals). Bone marrow cells were injected 24 h after the last irradiation. One day later, bilateral nephrectomy and the graft of one kidney from the bone marrow cell donor were performed simultaneously. Results convinced us that application of the TLI protocol to humans is not yet practicable and that further experimental work is needed