The Use of Diffusion Chambers in the Study of Tumour Immunobiology and Lymphokines

Abstract

Diffusion chambers were employed to study the in vivo mechanism of cytotoxicity reactions in a mammary tumor mouse model system. Chambers containing normal or tumor-immune murine spleen cells were implanted into both normal and tumor-bearing recipient mice. Spleen cells from recipient animals were subsequently assayed in three different types of cytotoxic reactions: phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-induced cytotoxicity, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), and specifically induced, nonspecifically expressed cytotoxicity (SINEC). Lymphocyte responses of either group of recipients receiving chambers containing normal spleen cells were unaffected. Additionally, tumor-bearing recipients implanted with chambers containing tumor-immune spleen cells showed no significant changes in these cell-mediated immune assays. In sharp contrast, normal mice receiving chambers with tumor-immune spleen cells became responsive in the SINEC assay while not changing their reactivity in the other two cytotoxic assays. Since in vitro evidence exists that lymphokines are at least in part responsible for the mechanism of SINEC, we propose that the use of diffusion chambers demonstrates the in vivo relevance of these factors.