Cellular basis for the immune response to methylcholanthrene-induced tumors in mice. Heterogeneity of effector cells.

Immune resistance to methylcholanthrene-induced tumors has two phases, an early specific and a late non-specific phase. Both phases were found to be T-cell-dependent in vivo. Thus, adult thymectomized, irradiated, bone-marrow-protected mice bearing H-1 tumor isografts showed impaired resistance to challenge with homologous (H-1) and heterologous (H-3) tumor cells. In each case resistance was restored by injection of thymus cells. In vitro analysis of the cellular basis of resistance revealed that different mechanisms were involved in the two phases. The cytotoxic effect of immune spleen cells taken during the early specific phase was inhibited by pretreatment with anti-O serum and complement and by removal of macrophages. Neither procedure, however, interfered with the cytotoxic potential of immune spleen cells taken during the late non-specific phage of immunity. Passage of immune spleen cells through rabbit-IgG anti-mouse immunoglobulin-coated columns (which yielded a T-cell-enriched, B-cell-depleted population) resulted in abrogration of cytotoxicity whether the cells were obtained during the early or the late phase of resistance. The inability of late-phase spleen cells to kill was explicable in terms of B-cell removal since T-cells and macrophages had been shown to be ineffective at that time. In contrast, the failure of column-treated cells from the early phase to kill was found to be due to removal of adherent cells rather than B-cells since cytotoxicity (1) was abrogated by passage through control columns coated with rabbit-IgG anti-sheep red blood cell antibody which did not retain B-cells and (2) could be restored by addition of immune macrophages (from anti-O serum-treated spleens). Taken together, these results indicate that the cellular basis of immune resistance to methylcholanthrene-induced tumors is heterogeneous. The early specific phase seems to be mediated by an interaction between T-cells and macrophages; the late none-specific phase, although T-cell dependent in its induction, depends on a different effector mechanism, possibly involving a cell or its products of the B lineage.