Cytotoxicity of guinea-pig lymphoid cells against guinea-pig hepatoma cells in tissue culture.

The cytotoxic effect of guinea-pig lymphoid cells on guinea-pig hepatoma cell lines in tissue culture was investigated, using the microplate technique of Takasugi and Klein (1970). The effect of lymphoid cells from guinea-pigs immunized against tumor cells was compared to that of cells from normal controls. Several ratios of effector to target cells (10 : 1, 50 : 1, 150: 1, 250 : 1) were used. In Hartley guinea-pigs immunized with allogeneic tumour cells, peripheral blood lymphoid cells from 14/16 animals showed significant cytotoxicity against that tumour in culture. In a syngeneic tumour/host system, 7/13 animals showed cytotoxicity. Spleen cells gave less consistent results in both systems. The cytotoxic activity of subpopulations of immune lymphocytes against tumour cells in vitro was investigated. It was found that although both T-cell-enriched and T-cell-depleted cell populations exhibited cytotoxicity against tumour cells, the unfractionated cell population was the most effective. This suggests that some degree of cell cooperation may be involved in the cytotoxicity. Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity was also obtained. A T-cell-depleted population of normal cells was shown to be cytotoxic to tumour cells in the presence of serum from immune animals. This type of cytotoxicity could be obtained concomitantly with cell-mediated cytotoxicity in the same animals.