The induction of the Shope papilloma in transplants of embryonic rabbit skin.

One of the problems incident to the successful transplantation of embryonic tissue concerns the status of the transplant in relation to the constitu tion of the host. Variations in susceptibility to in fectious agents offer a convenient measure of con stitutional difference and have been employed for this purpose in the study of homologous trans plants in immunologically altered hosts as well as of heterologous transplants between susceptible and resistant species. A variety of agents of both viral and bacterial nature has been used, and the results to be reported are representative of the wide, general susceptibility found to characterize embryonic transplants. The present paper is concerned primarily with the susceptibility of embryonic rabbit skin to the Shope papilloma virus in adult animals of homol ogous and heterologous species, but in as much as the results of control experiments involving the transplantation of domestic papilloma tissue in such hosts are at variance with the findings of other laboratories, as well as with comparable studies of other benign tumors, this phase of the investigation will be given some emphasis.