Ability of murine full-term fetal blood to reconstitute lethally irradiated adult murine recipients across major histocompatibility barrier.

Graded numbers of (A) T-cell–depleted bone marrow cells or (B) murine full-term fetal blood cells were transplanted into lethally irradiated (8.5 Gy) BALB/c recipients (full-term fetal blood: n = 47 for 1 × 10⁶, n = 47 for 2.5 × 10⁶, n = 17 for 5 × 10⁶; T-cell–depleted bone marrow: n = 14 for 1 × 10⁶, n = 24 for 2.5 × 10⁶, n = 12 for 5 × 10⁶). Controls included a group of mice receiving lethal radiation only (n = 10). Mortality was recorded daily. Data are probability of survival pooled from 2 to 6 independent experiments. Cell numbers in the legends were transplantation doses in millions. P < .05, allogeneic full-term fetal blood groups versus radiation only or versus T-cell–depleted bone marrow; P < .0001, between allogeneic and syngeneic full-term fetal blood groups; not significant, between different allogeneic full-term fetal blood groups; P < .05, between different T-cell–depleted bone marrow groups.