LEUCOCYTE/SKIN CULTURES AS A MEASURE OF HISTOCOMPATIBILITY IN MAN

Isolated human epidermal cells induced blastogenesis and D.N.A. synthesis in allogeneic leucocytes, but not in autologous leucocytes. No blastogenesis occurred in mixed leucocyte/skin cultures between a pair of phenotypically HL-A identical siblings not reacting in a mixed-leucocyte test. This correlation suggests that epidermal-cell-induced blastogenesis and leucocyte-induced blastogenesis reflect the same alloantigenic differences, and that both may be determined by the same genetic locus.