Kinetics of the response of spleen cells from tumor‐bearing animals in an in vivo tumor neutralization assay

Abstract

The behavior of spleen cells from tumor-bearing mice, vis-à-vis isologous tumor cells, was investigated by means of an in vivo adoptive neutralization test. C3H/eB mice were challenged with tumor cells from a chemically induced fibrosarcoma. Spleens from these animals were removed at weekly intervals following tumor inoculation, mixed with tumor cells, and tested for their influence on tumor growth in syngeneic recipient mice. Two phases in the reactivity of spleen cells from tumor-bearing mice were clearly distinguishable. In a first stage of tumor growth, these mice yielded specific tumor-inhibitory cells conferring protection. Subsequently, the protective activity declined leading to a second phase characterized by tumor enhancement. Both protective and enhancing activities were shown to be mainly dependent on the presence of T cells.

Enhancement of growth of a radiation-induced lymphoma by T cells from normal mice

“…We have shown previously that the enhancing effect of spleen cells from mice bearing a chemically induced fibrosarcoma was not tumour specific (Gabizon et al, 1976). Together with this, the present observations indicate that a non-sensitized lymphoid population is capable of tumour enhancement, suggesting that a process of specific immunological recognition is not necessarily involved in tumour enhancement.…”

“…As seen in Table IV, irradiation produced no significant change in the number of tumour takes and time to tumour appearance in mice injected with tumour alone. More- (Umiel & Trainin, 1974;(Gabizon et al, 1976;Small, 1977). It was important, therefore, to check whether spleen T cells are involved in the enhancement of lymphoma growth in the present experimental model.…”

“…The growth of the 3LL tumour of spontaneous origin and of some chemically induced fibrosarcomas was enhanced by lymphocytes of tumour-bearing mice (Umiel & Trainin, 1974;Gabizon et al, 1976;Manor et al, 1976). In addition, tumour-enhancing lymphocytes from mice bearing a chemically induced fibrosarcoma were found to abolish the activity of tumour-inhibiting lymphocytes when mixed together .…”

Effect of splenectomy on the growth of murine colon tumors

“…The factors influencing the effect of splenectomy on tumor growth may then be considered to be (1) immunogenicity of tumor cells, (2) tissue type of cancer, (3) relative intervals between splenectomy and tumor cell inoculation [15], and (4) the dose of tumor cells inoculated [ 12,161. Furthermore, the complex cellular kinetics affecting tumor growth must be taken into account as suggested by Gabizon et a1 [17]. This group reported a biphasic behavior of splenocytes from fibrosarcomabearing mice, with inhibitory activity in the first stage of tumor development and enhancing activity from the fifth week of tumor development.…”

Facilitation of Tumor Metastasis by Operative Stress and Participation of Cell-Mediated Immunity

“…Spleen weights in the tumor bearers generally were significantly higher than in the nontumor bearers. The fact that the thymus and the spleen, the two main organs participating in immune functions, show such contrasting changes in weight in tumor bearers, has been described by various authors [4,8,22], and is considered to be related to immunologic reaction to tumor antigens [5,15]. On the other hand, the obser ved increase in spleen weight in parallel with degree of operative stress might be reasonably explained, as Munster [19] describes, by stimulated production of suppressor cells in the spleen [26].…”