Return of immunohematopoietic impairment a long time after murine syngeneic bone marrow transplantation.

We have tested the immunologic status and hematologic parameters of mice 2 months (short-term survivors) or 18 months (long-term survivors) after lethal total body irradiation and syngeneic bone marrow transplantation (SBMT), and of normal mice of corresponding age. Long-term SBMT survivors showed significantly lowered bone marrow and spleen cellularities, decreased numbers of CFU-S in hemopoietic organs and severe impairment in the formation of CFU-F colonies compared with short-term SBMT survivors and normal mice. The peripheral blood parameters (hematocrit, erythrocytes, reticulocytes, platelets, white blood cells and granulocyte counts), however, remained unaltered. In long-term SBMT survivors we also observed a relative increase of Lyt-2+ lymphocytes (CD8+, cytotoxic/suppressor) and Mac-1+ cells among splenocytes. At the same time the L3T4+/Lyt-2+ ratio (CD4+/CD8+) was decreased. Relative contents of Ig+, Thy-1+ and L3T4+ cells were unchanged. The ability of splenocytes to generate IL-2R+ cells after in vitro stimulation with concanavalin A was greatly diminished. In summary, the immunohematopoietic status after initial normalization is again impaired in long-term SBMT survivors.