Abstract
Abstract In immunodeficiency patients undergoing severe graft-vs-host (GVH) disease after bone marrow transplantation, a fall in the early C components was observed. To investigate this further, we induced a systemic GVH disease in (LxBN) F1 hybrid rats (70 g) by giving them a 200 × 106 or 400 × 106 Lewis spleen cell suspension i.v. Clinical GVH disease was present on day 5 and most of the animals died by 2 weeks of infection. Six of eight rats in the experimental group had a fall in the levels of serum C2 and C4 concomitant with the onset of the GVH reaction. C1 was variable in that only three of eight had diminished levels. One of six control rats had a significant fall in early C components. In a subsequent experiment (F344xBN)F1 hybrid rats (60 g) were injected i.v. with a 400 × 106 F344 spleen cell suspension or 200 × 106 F344 Ficoll/Hypaque (F/H) separated lymphocytes.