THE ROLE OF HUMORAL ANTIBODIES IN REJECTION OF SKIN HOMOGRAFTS IN RABBITS

Abstract

Gross and microscopic observations of skin homograft rejection carried out in cortisone-conditioned and non-conditioned rabbits seem to indicate that humoral antibodies play an important role in the phenomenon. Thus, local administration of isoimmune serum to animals bearing skin homografts results in a significantly earlier rejection of that particular test graft without modifying of course of a neighboring control-skin graft. This result appears to support the idea that homograft rejection is not only due to cellular antibodies but to a combination of both humoral and cellular immune responses, which should not be regarded as com -pletely unrelated.