Evolution of Cell-Mediated Immunity in Mice Bearing an Antigenic Tumor. Influence of Tumor Growth and Surgical Removal

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Specific, cell-mediated immunity was studied in BALB/c mice with tumors produced by inoculation of a syngeneic, in vitro-cultivated T5 cell line. The T5 cells, which had an antigen induced by an attenuated Rauscher virus, were malignant but nonleukemogenic, and mice could be easily immunized against a challenge with high doses of viable T5 cells. Cells obtained by peritoneal washings from immunized mice inhibited efficiently, in a colony growth inhibition (CGI) test, the growth of T5 cells. The use of peritoneal cells (PC) made it possible to check systematically in a “vertical” study the specific immunological status of BALB/c mice with T5 tumors growing unhindered or after their surgical removal, followed or not by reinoculation of X-irradiated T5 tumor cells. From the obtained data we found that PC taken from mice at the beginning of tumor growth showed some cell-mediated immunological activity which disappeared completely in mice bearing tumors 4 weeks old or more. The state of immunological “inertia” extended for at least 7 days and, in some experiments, up to 3 weeks after surgical removal of the tumors. However, later, the specific immunological potential of the mice that had surgery recovered entirely and, in CGI test, their PC became as active as those sampled from mice immunized with X-irradiated cells. Several experiments produced evidence that reinoculation of X-irradiated and frozen T5 tumor cells into mice, 7 and 14 days after tumor removal, not only did not disturb the recovery of the anti-T5 cell immunological activity of the PC but accelerated significantly this recovery. The results are discussed in the light of the available data concerning variation of cell immunity status in tumor-bearing hosts.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: