AUGMENTATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMMUNE-RESPONSES OF MICE AGAINST ALLOGENEIC-TUMOR CELLS AFTER ADRIAMYCIN TREATMENT

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 41  (9) , 3370-3376
Abstract
In C57BL/6J mice, depending on the dose of [mouse mastocytoma] P815 cells used for immunization, adriamycin exerted different effects on the cell-mediated lytic response and complement-dependent cytotoxicity. At the dose of 3 .times. 107 P815 cells, adriamycin treatment had no apparent effect on cell-mediated lytic response regardless of timing of drug treatment. At lower doses of antigen (107 or 5 .times. 106 cells), the response was augmented in adriamycin-pretreated mice. Under conditions which led to a suboptimal complement-dependent humoral response of untreated control, adriamycin pretreatment resulted in an augmented response; under conditions of maximal response, adriamycin was suppressive. Suppression was maximal if the drug was injected at the same time or shortly before or after antigen. The cell-mediated lytic response was proportional to the dose of antigen used; the complement-dependent humoral lytic response was inversely proportional to dose of antigen in the range used in these experiments. Secondary cell-mediated lytic response in culture was also augmented if mice had been pretreated with adriamycin 5 days before the primary immunization. The cell-mediated lytic response of spleen and peritoneal exudate cells from mice immunized with relatively low doses of P815 cells 5 days after treatment with adriamycin was increased 12-15 days after immunization. The cytotoxic effects were present in plastic adherent and nonadherent fractions of spleen or peritoneal cell populations. All these effector cells were anti-Thy 1.2 sensitive. The phagocytic activity of spleen cells was increased after immunization, but no drug effect was observed; following 24 h of culture, cells from drug-treated immunized donors had increased phagocytic activity as compared to that of controls. Increased phagocytosis also developed in cells nonadherent to plastic.