Influence of a skin allograft on frequencies of CTL precursor in peripheral blood of the dog.

Alloantigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and their precursors (CTL-P) have been determined in the peripheral blood of skin allografted dogs. CTL-P frequencies increased rapidly after transplantation and reached maximal values after complete rejection of the skin allograft. Differences in the time response kinetics of CTL-P frequencies between recipients were not correlated with the length of graft survival. The CTL-P frequencies declined after days 13-20 and appeared still to be elevated 30 days after rejection of the graft.