Immunologic and plasma protein studies in a splenic homograft recipient

Abstract

A report is given of the immunologic and haematologic changes in a 24-year-old man with juvenile Gaucher's disease who received a splenic homograft from an unrelated living donor. To judge from the spleen scans, the graft functioned for 6 weeks. During the latter part of this time erythrocytes with donor markers were detected in the recipient's blood, and at the same time antibodies to one of the donor erythrocyte antigens appeared. No lymphocytes of donors type or cytotoxic antibodies to such lymphocytes were found. Three weeks after the transplantation the immunologic reactivity of the recipient lymphocytes, as measured in vitro, was decreased. There were no significant changes in the plasma level of immunoglobulins or coagulation factors.