Neonatal tolerance induction across regions of H-2 complex.

Regions of the H-2 complex were evaluated for their capacity to resist neonatal tolerance induction. Congenic recombinant strains and mutants were employed to study K, I, and D region disparity. It was found that tolerance could be induced to differences at each region; however, the K region of the H-2 complex is not only highly immunogenic, but markedly resistant to neonatal tolerance induction. This is especially apparent when the host is derived from B10 stocks, even though the MHC haplotypes involved are not H-2b indicating that genetic factors unlinked to the MHC clearly play an important role in determining the ease of neonatal tolerance induction.