Figure 1.
Origin of Tasmanian devils used for mixed lymphocyte reactions and skin graft surgery.
Mount William National Park, Epping, Bronte Park, Nugent and Forestier Peninsula were considered eastern sites, whereas Woolnorth, Temma, Milkshake Hills and Granville Harbour were considered western sites. The grey area illustrates the DFTD-affected area in 2010 (http://tinyurl.com/3b6d8qf). Number of devils used in MLR experiments from each area is shown in brackets.
Table 1.
Origin and pairing of Tasmanian devils used for skin graft experiments.
Figure 2.
Mixed lymphocyte reaction between groups.
Results are presented as stimulation indices and median is shown. Statistical significance is illustrated as *p<0.05, **p<0.005 and ***p<0.0001. A. Mixed lymphocyte reactions within eastern groups. Devils from Mount William National Park had the highest median proliferations, followed by devils from Forestier Peninsula. B. Mixed lymphocyte reactions within western groups. Devils from Granville Harbour had the highest stimulation indices compared to the other groups. C. Mixed lymphocyte reactions between eastern and western groups. Median stimulation indices were highest when experiments were conducted between eastern and western devils.
Figure 3.
Intensity of MLR responses among all groups.
Intensity of MLR responses varied greatly among devils. The greatest responses occurred in MLR between devils from east and west Tasmania.
Figure 4.
Skin graft between unrelated Tasmanian devils.
A–C: Macroscopic appearance of the autograft (arrowhead) and allograft (arrow), at seven, 14 and 21 days after surgery. Dark dots in the grafts are scars from punch biopsies. D–F: Histological appearance of allografts at seven, 14 and 21 days after surgery, respectively. Note extensive mononuclear infiltration at 14 days after the surgery (E), and loss of epidermis at 21 days after surgery (F). Scale bars represent 200 µm. G–I: CD3 labelling of allografts at seven, 14 and 21 days after surgery, respectively. Note the extensive CD3 infiltration at 14 days after surgery (H). Scale bars represent 200 µm.
Table 2.
Outcome of skin allografts.
Table 3.
MHC genotyping of Tasmanian devils used for skin graft experiments.
Table 4.
Amino acid difference count at peptide binding sites and MLR results within skin graft devil pairs.