Partial Characterization of <italic>n</italic>-Butanol-Solubilized Rejection-Type Antigens of Syngeneic Murine Colon Tumors

Abstract

Previous investigation of the transplantation immunity of 2 cultured murine colon lines of BALB/c origin, C-C36 and C-C26, showed these tumor lines to be immunogenic against individual tumors and to have possibly cross-reactive, tumor-rejection-type antigens. For characterization of the molecular features of tumor-rejection antigens expressed on the colon tumor cells, n-butanol was used for the extraction of rejection-type antigens from tumor cells and immunogenic molecules were analyzed on transplantation immunity. The data demonstrated that extraction of the rejection-type antigens from C-C36 and C-C26 surface membrane without cellular lysis was possible with n-butanol treatment of these cells, and immunogenic activities of these extracts from C-C36 and C-C26 cells were more potent than those of nonionic detergent Nonidet P40 extracts in the tumor-rejection assays. The extracts were partially characterized by chromatographic separation on Sephadex G-200 gel filtration and lectin-affinity chromatography. It was suggested that the C-C36 antigens responsible for tumor-rejection activity against the same tumor cells had a molecular weight range of approximately 150,000 to 250,000 (fraction II) in the presence of 5 mM EDTA and had been eluted into unbound fractions to lens culinaris lectin on affinity chromatography. Moreover, immunization of mice with antigens from the same fractions (fraction II) of n-butanol extracts of C-C26 tumor on the gel filtration could induce the resistance against challenged C-C36 as well as against challenged C-C26 tumor growth. These results may indicate that solubilized tumor-rejection-type antigens found in C-C36 and C-C26 colon tumors have a size similar to that of the molecules and that cross-reacting, rejection-type antigens between these cells are the products of the same gene clusters or somatic derivatives of a single gene.