An X-encoded alloantigenicity between BALB/c and C57BL/6 strains of mice

To detect minor barriers to histocompatibility that might be encoded on the X chromosome in mice, we grafted reciprocal sets of (C57BL/6xBALB/c)F1, (C57BL/6xDBA/2)F1, and (BALB/cxDBA/2)F1 mice with tail skin from the respective paternal inbred strain. Our histogenic analysis suggests that, compared with the C57BL/6 mouse strain, the BALB/c strain generates X-linked antigen loss. In contrast, we detected no X-linked histogenic differences between strains C57BL/6 and DBA/2, or DBA/2 and BALB/c. To localize this X-linked barrier to histocompatibility, we produced a panel of 25 (BALB/cxC57BL/6)F1xC57BL/6]N2 males that were grafted with C57BL/6 skin to determine which carried the BALB/c-derived component(s) necessary for graft rejection. DNA marker analysis showed one region of overlapping BALB/c-derived X-chromosomal segments among the graft rejecters, suggesting that this antigen-loss haplotype ( H-hix(c), for histoincompatibility on the X chromosome, c haplotype) may be restricted within the DXMit55 to the Xq telomere interval (which excludes only the centromeric tip of the X). Further backcrossing of H-hix(c) to C57BL/6 resulted in fewer rejecter mice than expected by the N4 generation, suggesting that a second, unlinked locus is also involved in this X-linked alloantigenicity. The vigorous rejection of male (C57BL/6xBALB)F1 and female (B6.C- H2(d)xC57BL/6)F1 skin by (BALB/cxC57BL/6)F1 males, as well as the assessment of markers on Chromosome 17 among N2 and N4 graft-recipient males, suggests that this second locus is H2, and that H-hix(b)-encoded alloantigens require both H2(b) and H2(d)-encoded presentation molecules for efficient graft rejection.