Nonimmune and immune surveillance. I. Growth of tumors and normal fetal tissues grafted into newborn mice.

Growth of various fetal tissues and transplantable tumors in syngeneic newborn and adult mice [BALB/c, DBA/2, and (CBA X C57BL/6J)F1] was compared. Fetal skin, a mixture of all fetal tissues, and tumors were transplanted. The tumors arose spontaneously [hepatomas, mammary gland adenocarcinoma (MGAC)] or resulted from malignant conversion of ectopic transplants either of fetal tissues (urinary bladder carcinoma, adenocarcinoma of small intestine, stomach sarcoma) or of adult animal tissues (ovarian carcinoma) in the syngeneic system. The growth of fetal skin transplants and teratomas, which developed after transplantation of minced tissue from 18- to 20-day and 12- to 14-day fetuses, was considerably inferior in newborn syngeneic recipients, as compared with similar transplants in adults. Inhibition of tumor growth observed in newborn animals was manifested in prolongation of latent period before tumor node appearance and in slowing of growth rate of developed tumors. One of six tumors studied (MGAC) grew at the same rate in newborn and adult recipients. It was suggested that a special type of cellular and/or humoral mechanisms controlling tumor growth exists in newborns. The activity of such factors was conceivably based on fetal tumor antigens as targets. We assumed that weakly antigenic and strongly antigenic tumors behaved differently in respect to nonimmune and immune surveillance mechanisms.