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J D Horton

Publications and source records attributed to J D Horton.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Splenic involvement in amphibian transplantation immunity.

The spleen has been identified as a centre of alloimmune reactivity in control Xenopus. Levels of tritiated thymidine labelling and pyroninophilic cells are elevated in spleens of skin-allografted toadlets when compared with autografted and nongrafted animals. Second-set alloimmune reactivity can be transferred by implanting a spleen from a donor that has rejected one or two grafts into a nonsensitized host. Spleen donor and host in these experiments were mutually tolerant, following reciprocal transfer of embryonic tissue grafts. In contrast, studies on the uptake of tritiated thymidine and levels of pyroninophilia in animals thymectomized at 7 or 8 days of age suggest lack of splenic involvement in the chronic first-set allograft rejection that can still occur in the absence of the thymus. The lymphoid organ origin of "thymic-independent" alloimmunity still awaits clarification.

Animals↗

Distance correction for precordial electrocardiographic voltage in estimating left ventricular mass: an echocardiographic study.

This study was undertaken to assess both the relation between echocardiographic measurement of left ventricular (LV) mass and commonly used electrocardiographic criteria for LV hypertrophy and the effect of the distance from the center of LV mass to the anterior chest wall on precordial voltage. Echocardiograms and standard 12-lead electrocardiograms were obtained on 100 persons, ages 3 to 79. The correlation coefficients of echocardiographically determined LV mass with ECG precordial voltage (SV1 + RV5 or V6), the Estes point score system, and a VL4 wave voltage were .686, .721, and .531, respectively. Extrapolating from the dipole nature of the heart, the precrodial voltage was multiplied by the square of the chest wall to mid-LV distance to correct for the loss of energy across the distance from LV to recording electrode. Utilizing this correction, a much improved precordial voltage estimation of LV mass (r = .846) was obtained. We conclude that the distance of the center of LV mass from the chest wall influences the amplitude of recorded precordial voltage and that correction for this influence improved the correlation of precordial voltage with LV mass.

Adolescent↗

The effect of thymectomy at different stages of larval development on the immune response of the clawed toad to sheep erythrocytes.

The role of the thymus during the first three weeks of larval life in the maturation of humoral immunity in the amphibian, Xenopus laevis, is examined. Thymectomy throughout this period dramatically affects the heterologous red cell response of young adults. Sheep erythrocyte (SRBC) administration elicited haemolytic antibody production in the blood and in the spleen (measured by the appearance of plaque forming cells) of control animals, but failed to do so in all thymectomized toadlets. Moreover, use of the immunocyto-adherence assay, which proved to be a sensitive test for SRBC reactivity in control Xenopus, indicated a complete absence of induced responsiveness to this antigen in the spleens of thymectomized toadlets, even in those animals thymectomized as late as 22 days of age. In contrast to allograft immunity in Xenopus, Which is suppressed only by thymic ablation during the first two weeks of larval life, the development of reactivity to heterologous erythrocytes therefore requires an additional period of thymic influence during ontogeny. These experiments support a concept of thymus-dependent cell heterogeneity in amphibians.

Animals↗

Incomplete tolerance induced in Xenopus by larval tissue allografting: evidence from immunohistology and mixed leucocyte culture.

Application of adult skin allografts to Xenopus larvae has been a favoured protocol for probing the development of self-tolerance. A more physiologic approach is presented here that examines the immunologic outcome of grafting semi- or fully allogeneic larval skin or spleen to age-matched, larval Xenopus (X. laevis/X. gilli clonal hybrids). Following such grafting at 2 or 4 weeks-of-age, young froglets (4-5-months-old) are generally unable to reject second-set skin transplants, but destroy third-party skin vigorously, the MHC class II-rich spleen proving especially effective at inducing this tolerance. In contrast, following larval grafting of semiallogeneic tissues, mixed leucocyte culture performed at the end of metamorphosis (6 weeks) and again at 6 months reveals splenocyte reactivity toward donor-strain stimulators. Immunohistological findings extend this observation of anti-donor reactivity (suggesting incomplete tolerance) to the graft site. Thus despite excellent health when viewed externally, apparently tolerated second-set skin transplants display localised infiltration (especially into the epidermis) by CD8+ T cells and increased numbers of MHC class I and II-expressing cells by 3 weeks post-grafting. The immunologic implications of these findings are discussed.

Animals↗

Ontogeny and thymus-dependence of T cell surface antigens in Xenopus: flow cytometric studies on monoclonal antibody-stained thymus and spleen.

Recently generated anti-Xenopus T cell monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to the 120 kDa XTLA-1 determinant and against the putative CD5 and CD8 homologues, together with anti-IgM and anti-MHC class II mAbs, are used in dual colour flow cytometric experiments to characterize cell surface antigenic expression on lymphocytes in thymus and spleen of Xenopus laevis during larval and early adult life and also in metamorphosis-inhibited animals. Histological confirmation of T cell emergence early in larval ontogeny is supplied by cryostat sections stained for CD8. Five-day thymectomy, i.e. prior to T-lineage cell differentiation in the thymus, abolishes T cell marker expression in the spleen for up to 1 year. Moreover, late larval (20 days) or early adult (3 months) thymectomy (i.e. removal after peripheralization of T cells has occurred) also leads to severe depletion of mAb-defined T cells in the spleen.

Animals↗