Effect of Autologous Serum on in vitro Inhibition of Leukocyte Migration by Autochthonous Tumor Extracts from Human Patients

Abstract

An earlier study on cell-mediated immunity based on an in vitro leukocyte migration test (LMT) has been made on patients with a variety of operable carcinomas [5]. In the LMT blood leukocytes migrate from a capillary tube into the surrounding medium: the migration is inhibited when antigen to which the leukocyte donor displays cellular hypersensitivity is added to the medium [4, 6]. A significant inhibition of leukocyte migration was observed in the presence of autologous tumor extract in 33 out of 57 patients studied. These results indicate a previous sensitization of the lymphocytes to some tumor antigens in 58% of the patients. These patients were placed in 5 groups according to the histological type of the tumors. No significant difference in the results from LMT was observed among the 5 groups (Table 1). Further, no correlation was observed between the LMT results and the clinical status of the disease. However, in this study there were only a few patients in each group, and to obtain additional information a second study was undertaken on 2 groups of patients: Group I with operable breast carcinoma and Group II with malignant melanoma. In the present study we tested the effect of tumor extracts, serum and tumor extracts in conjunction with serum on the migration of autologous leukocytes.