Survival of transfused blood in rats

¹ Argonne Cancer Research Hospital; and Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Using the survival of transfused radioactive hexavalent sodium chromate (Na₂Cr⁵¹O₄)-labeled red cells as a criterion, the survival of rat blood in autologous animals and in animals of the same and another strain of rats was studied. It was found that blood from the Long-Evans strain was rapidly destroyed in Sprague-Dawley recipients and that this accelerated destruction was dependent on the presence of Bartonella muris infestation endemic to the Long-Evans strain. The infestation does not appear to affect survival of autologous red cells in carrier Long-Evans rats. Although the survival of blood from either homologous Sprague-Dawley or Long-Evans rats free from Bartonella muris infestation was reduced in normal Sprague-Dawley rats, splenectomy of Sprague-Dawley recipients resulted in an increase of survival time to above normal levels. Splenectomy of the recipient was also found to minimize the rapid destruction of Bartonella-free Long-Evans blood in ‘hyperimmunized’ Sprague-Dawley rats. The importance of the spleen in determining the fate of a homologous transfusion is discussed.