Circulating immune complexes in rats bearing chemically induced tumours. II. Characterization of sera from different stages of tumour growth.

Sera from rats bearing intraperitoneal implants of an aminoazo dye-induced hepatoma were fractionated by Sephadex G200 and DEAE-cellulose ion exchange column chromatography. Isolated fractions were examined for their capacity to bind [125I]C1q as a measure of immune complex levels, and for their ability to bind soluble tumour-specific antigen as well as to react with antigens expressed at the surface of viable hepatoma cells. Elevated levels of circulating immune complexes in unfractionated serum were directly detectable during early tumour development although, following serum fractionation, immune complexes were identified at both early and late stages of tumour growth. The present findings suggest that the detection of immune complexes in unfractionated samples of late tumour-bearer serum using a C1q-binding assay is masked by the increasing production of tumour-specific antibodies and by a shift from complement fixing to non-complement-fixing tumour-specific antibodies.