Blastogenic response of spleen cells from C1300 neuroblastoma-bearing mice to tumor cells or soluble and insoluble tumor antigens.

Abstract

Adult A/J mice inoculated with 1 x 10(6) syngeneic C1300 neuroblastoma cells had a palpable tumor after 1 week, and the tumor grew uniformly. The hypertonic KCl extract of the tumor induced blastogenic response of syngeneic spleen cells from tumor-bearing mice, and tumor antigens were considered to be solubilized by KCl from tumor cells. Although a higher blastogenic response to insoluble tumor antigens coupled to Sepharose 4B beads could have been expected as demonstrated in this mixed lymphocyte-tumor cell reaction (MLTR) assays, the blastogenic activity, which was approximately equal to that of soluble tumor antigens, was less than one-third of that in MLTR. The initial information of blastogenic response was found to be transmitted to the responder cells with out the entrance of tumor antigens into the cells by the use of insoluble tumor antigens. Blastogenic responses to soluble tumor antigens and to irradiated tumor cells (MLTR) in spleen cells from tumor-bearing mice were serially assayed after tumor inoculation. The response to soluble tumor antigens reached a peak 2 weeks after inoculation but a progressive depression of the responses was observed after a marked tumor growth. Although the blastogenic activity of soluble tumor antigens was small, changes in consecutive response to soluble tumor antigens in tumor-bearing mice were well correlated with those in MLTR. The blastogenic responses to soluble tumor antigens and MLTR were considered to be the manifestation of tumor-specific cell-mediated immunity. Furthermore, the serial blastogenic responses to concanavalin-A and lipopolysaccharide were also coincident with those of tumor-specific immunity.