Cell-mediated suppression of tumor immunity has a non-specific component. II. Evidence from cell culture experiments

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Abstract
In vitro studies were performed to search for cells in the thymus of BALB/c mice with MCA-induced sarcomas which could suppress either a secondary immune response to MuLV-associated tumor antigens present on a Moloney leukemia virus-induced lymphoma, LSTRA, or a primary cytotoxic response to C57BL/6 alloanti-gens. They showed that thymocytes from mice with sarcomas were suppressive in both systems, and that suppression was independent of whether or not the sarcomas expressed MuLV antigen gp70. Furthermore, normal thymocytes, when combined with mitomycin-C-treated cells from any of several different MCA-induced sarcomas, suppressed the in vitro generation of a secondary cytolytic response to LSTRA. We postulate that exposure of mice to certain tumor antigens induces cells which, in the presence of the same tumor antigens, can suppress the immune response also to antigens which are not detectably present on the tumor cells inducing the response.