Blood flow and permeability changes in the immune lymphocyte transfer reaction

Blood flow (133Xe clearance) and plasma exudation ([133I]HSA) have been measured in the immune lymphocyte transfer (ILT) reaction and skin grafts in rabbits. Injection of sensitised lymphocytes produced a dose-related increase in plasma exudation and blood flow at 48 hr, reached a maximum at day 3 and faded from day 5 to 8. There was an increased blood flow and plasma exudation on day 4 after grafting autografts and homografts, but the increase in plasma exudation was significantly higher in homografts. In the ILT reaction (48 hr) and the homografts (4 days) but not in autografts, prostaglandin synthetase inhibition caused a significant reduction in the increased blood flow, but did not abolish it nor did they affect the increased plasma exudation. It is concluded that the ILT reaction is a suitable model for the study of mediators of the vascular effects of the early phase of the skin graft reaction. The present experiments suggest that the vasodilatation is partly due to prostaglandin formation, but part of the vasodilatation and all the plasma exudation are mediated by substances other than prostaglandins.