Thymic epithelium tolerizes chickens to embryonic grafts of quail bursa of Fabricius

Abstract

We demonstrated previously that isotopic and isochronic grafts of the quail bursa of Fabricius rudiment performed at 5 days of incubation (E5) into chick embryos resulted in the development of a chimeric bursa whose chick host B lymphocytes and accessory cells differentiated in a foreign, quail epithellal environment. Such animals reject their grafted bursa by the age of 2–3 weeks post-hatching (1,2). Isotopic embryonic grafts of the thymus epithellomesenchymal anlagen from the quail donor of the bursal rudiment were carried out at E4.5 (before their colonization by hemopoletic precursor cells), following partial or complete host thymectomy. The quall thymic epithelial stroma was accepted and invaded by chick hemopoietic precursor cells that further differentiated into lymphocytes and dendritic cells. Tolerance of the foreign bursa was induced in such thymobursal chimeras. This demonstrates that the thymic epithellum has the capacity to induce tolerance of xenogeneic rudiments when both grafts are implanted at early stages of embryonic development. We also report on the production of two birds in which removal of the chick host thymus was complete thus generating chimeras in which host T and B lymphocytes differentiated in a completely xenogeneic epithellal environment.