Thymic disease is a consequence of acute but not chronic GVHD.
Acute GVHD was induced by the transfer of 50 × 106parental B6 splenocytes to unirradiated B6D2F1 mice (B), whereas chronic GVHD was induced by the transfer of 80 × 106 parental DBA/2 splenocytes to unirradiated B6D2F1 mice (C). Syngeneically transplanted B6D2F1 mice served as controls (A). Frozen thymic sections (5 μm) were analyzed for histopathology at 2 weeks after transplantation. Magnification ×200. (D) Thymic cellularity as a function of time (total cells per thymus × 10−6) in syngeneically transplanted mice (▵) and in mice with acute (•) and chronic (□) GVHD, respectively. The figure represents combined data (mean ± SEM) of individual mice from at least 8 separate experiments; 20 to 42 mice were analyzed for each group.
