STUDIES OF SUCCESSFUL SKIN HOMOGRAFTS IN THE CHICKEN

Abstract

From the method of Danforth a simple technic of obtaining a significant number of healthy, growing chicken skin homografts was derived, which provides a delicate method of testing the influence of various factors on homografted tissue. The technic is useful for comparing the skin homograft reaction with that of a control autograft placed on the same chick at the same time. Curves have been established indicating the incidence of take and duration of survival of homografts per-formed between chicks of different breeds. The effect of the age of the recipient at the time of grafting upon the survival of skin homografts was observed. A permanent take in 5 to 10 per cent of the skin homografts was obtained when the chicks were no older than three days at the time of operation. A take of the skin homografts in only 1 per cent was obtained in four-, five- and six-day-old chicks observed for a ten-week period postoperatively. No take of the homografts lasting more than a few days was observed in chicks operated on when 14 days old. Changes in the behavior of homografts in birds receiving ACTH and cortisone injections were also studied. ACTH in the dosage used in these experiments had little effect on the ability of the chick to destroy the homografts. The administration of approximately 1 mg. of cortisone per day for each 30 Gm. of body weight to chicks that had received skin homografts increased the incidence of survival of the grafts from 6 per cent to 20 per cent, and the increased incidence of survival persisted at least six weeks after discontinuation of the drug therapy.