Production of self-directed antibody by tumour cells.

Abstract

INOCULATION of Amsterdam rats with syngeneic tumour cells induced by Schmidt-Ruppin Rous sarcoma virus (SR-RSV) leads to the development of complement-fixing (CF) antibody to the tumour antigen1. The pattern of development of CF antibody in this system, in common with antibody development of the T antigens of other virus-induced tumour cells2–4, has several peculiar characteristics; for example, the level of CF antibody does not reflect immune status, the highest levels of CF antibody occur in tumour-bearing rats, and failure of tumour formation or regression results in low levels of CF antibody which are not elevated by repeated challenge with the same tumour cells. These observations raised an unorthodox question: is the tumour cell itself—in spite of its origin in a non-immunocompetent tissue—the source of some or all of the circulating CF antibody ? Our studies were designed to determine whether Rous sarcoma and other tumour cells have the capacity to produce self-directed antibody in vitro.