Summary.-Whole body X-irradiation (400 rad) of C57BL mice, either before or after i.m. implantation of the syngeneic fibrosarcoma, FS6, influenced both the growth of the tumours and their cellular composition, particularly their macrophage content. Pre-irradiation resulted in slower initial growth of tumours, and a concomitant lack of host -cell infiltration, but when tumours began to grow at a rate parallel to controls infiltration by host cells was demonstrable. Similarly, irradiation of the tumourbearing host resulted in a temporary cessation of growth, and a decrease in the macrophage content, which did not return to control levels for 2-3 weeks after irradiation. (Evans, 1972). Moreover, for a given tumour, the level was also shown to be relatively constant, both during the growth of the tumour and when it was transplanted to a syngeneic recipient.In an attempt to further our understanding of the mechanisms which affect tumour growth and the cellular composition of the tumour, mice were exposed to whole-body irradiation either before the C57BL fibrosarcoma, FS6, was implanted, or after the tumour had been growing for several days.
MATERIALS AND METHODSMice.-Eight 10-week-old male C57BL mice, weighing 18-24 g, were used for growth of the syngeneic FS6 tumour, which was benzpyrene-induced in 1969 and maintained by regular passage in syngeneic mice by injecting cells into the musculature of the right hind leg. This tumour is highly immunogenic, as shown either by concomitant immunity techniques or by rejection of large numbers of challenge tumour cells after surgical excision of the primary tumour.Tumnour.-Cell suspensions from intramuscular FS6 tumours were prepared by a modification of the technique fully described elsewhere (Evans, 1972). Trypsin was omitted from the enzyme solution and the percentage of collagenase was increased to 0 2%. Deoxyribonuclease (Sigma) was also incorporated at 1 ,ug/ml. The reason for omitting trypsin was that separation of adherent, non-neoplastic cells (see below) was achieved more readily if the FS6 tumour cells had not been previously exposed to trypsin. In all experiments 106 tumour cells were injected i.m. This size of inoculum gave a