The shedding of viable cells into the local lymph by tumours growing in the gut of rats

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Suspensions of syngeneic sarcoma cells were injected into the Peyer''s patches of rats from which the mesenteric nodes had been removed. By later cannulating the thoracic duct of such rats, it was possible to collect peripheral intestinal lymph that had come directly from the tumor bearing area without being filtered through a regional node. The number of viable tumor cells in the lymph coming from the tumors was monitored by culturing the whole lymph cells in a limiting dilution assay. The tumors grew to a diameter of .apprx. 1 cm in 25 days and during this time tumor cells were present in the lymph at a ratio of .apprx. 1 tumor cell per 105 lymph cells. In euthymic rats, this number declined as the immune response developed. In athymic rats, the number increased by .apprx. 10 fold during the experiments. The shedding of viable cells apparently parallels the linear, not the volumetric dimensions of the tumor.