A heterotopically transplanted thymus syngeneic to donor splenocytes is not a target of acute GVHD.
A single thymic lobe from neonatal B6 mice was transplanted aseptically under the left kidney capsule of B6D2F1 mice. Forty-eight hours later, GVHD was induced in organ-transplanted mice by the infusion of 50 × 106 B6 splenocytes. In this setting, the orthotopic thymus is allogeneic, whereas the heterotopic thymus is syngeneic to the donor inoculum. Thymocytes were analyzed for surface expression of CD4 and CD8 by flow cytometry on day 14 after GVHD induction (day 16 after thymus transplantation). Numbers within the flow cytometry plots represent mean frequencies (%) of the respective populations among all live thymocytes. The graph is representative of 1 experiment; 2 to 3 mice were analyzed for each group.
