Effect of bursectomy and thymectomy on cellular immunological reactions in chickens

The effect of thymectomy + irradiation and of bursectomy + irradiation on the rejection of skin grafts and injected homologous spleen cells was studied. Prolonged skin graft survival was found in thymectomized and irradiated chickens. Bursectomy together with irradiation and isolated irradiation did not affect the rejection of these grafts. Surgical operations together with irradiation had no effect on the rejection of an allogenein cellular graft. In one-day-old recipients, survival of the cells was prolonged in all the birds, while in 12-day-old recipients the cells were rejected at the normal time by both bursectomized and thymectomized birds. The possible explanations of these results are discussed. Dedicated to Academician Ivan Málek on the occasion of his 60th birthday