Transfer factor—Transfer of tuberculin cutaneous sensitivity in an allogeneic and xenogeneic monkey model

Tuberculin cutaneous sensitivity can be transferred from rhesus monkeys, sensitized to tuberculin using BCG, to rhesus and cynomolgus recipients with viable or disrupted leucocytes, and with a dialysed lysate preparation from 3 × 10⁸ leucocytes. Dialysable transfer factor (TF) using the lyophilized aqueous dialysate of a leucocyte lysate prepared by the freeze-thaw method did not give an active material. Modifications to the preparative method, in that leucocytes from fresh blood were disrupted gently by mechanical shearing forces, the lysate dialysed against a balanced salt solution and injected without lyophilization, yielded an active preparation. Transferred tuberculin (PPD) skin reactivity, confirmed by biopsy, was always less than the reactivity of the donor monkey and lasted for approximately 2–3 months. Although donor monkeys showed good in vitro lymphocyte transformation response to antigen stimulation, recipient monkeys which became skin test positive did not have a concomitant blastogenic response to PPD.