Cardiac allograft survival across major histocompatibility complex barriers in the rhesus monkey following T lymphocyte-depleted autologous marrow transplantation. III. Late allograft rejection.

We have studied organ allograft survival in rhesus monkeys conditioned with myeloablative total-body irradiation and T cell-depleted autologous bone marrow transplantation then given a heterotopic MHC-mismatched cardiac allograft in the immediate postmyeloablative period. This model has enabled us to investigate the role of T cells in vascularized organ allograft rejection. We previously reported (1) that recipients of marrow depleted of T cells below a critical threshold (0.16% residual marrow T cells, or 0.14 x 10(5) infused T cells/kg) experienced a period of freedom from acute rejection associated with a profound nonspecific immune deficiency (determined by skin grafting). Resolution of the nonspecific immune deficiency was associated with late graft rejection. In the present report, we correlate the results of peripheral immune reconstitution studies and direct immunohistochemical analysis with allograft status in order to study T cell subsets involved in late rejection. We report that, in contrast with CD8+/CD28- T cells, CD16+ NK cells, and CD20+ B cells, late allograft rejection was associated with the return of peripheral CD4+ T cells and CD8+/CD28+ T cells, suggesting a critical role for one or both of these subsets in late allograft rejection in this model.