Genetic aspects of canine mixed leukocyte cultures.

Recent data stress the importance of matching donor and recipient of an organ graft for both the serologically defined (SD) and lymphocyte-defined (LD) determinants. To allow experimental evaluation of the effect of these SD and LD structures in a noninbred experimental animal, mixed leukocyte culture tests were performed between SD identical and nonidentical dogs to clarify the LD system in these animals. The results of these experiments can be summarized as follows: (a) In the dog there is a LD locus distinct from the known SD loci, which in all probability is localized outside the first (SD-1) series locus on the chromosome. (b) The crossing-over frequency between the SD and LD loci on the chromosome is low. (c) Studies in SD identical unrelated dogs and random unrelated dogs show an apparent high linkage disequilibrium between SD and LD loci. (d) The LD system in dogs is polymorphic.