Rabbit blastocoelic fluid regulation of tumor-cell proliferation in vitro.

To determine whether rabbit blastocoelic fluid could inhibit tumor-cell proliferation, day-9 and day-12 embryonic fluids, together with autologous and homologous sera, were collected from pregnant or pseudopregnant rabbits and tested against 13 different cell lines and on human carcinoma cells in primary culture. An inhibitory effect on cell proliferation was observed in the presence of blastocoelic fluids, but not with homologous or heterologous sera. This suppression was higher with samples collected at day 12 than at day 9 of pregnancy. No such inhibition could be detected on one-cell rabbit embryos or on freshly prepared uterine stromal or myometrial cells. In addition, the inhibitory activity on tumor cells was completely reversible upon removal of the fluids. Incorporation of 3H-thymidine, 3H-uridine and 35S-methionine revealed that, in the presence of blastocoelic fluids, both DNA and RNA syntheses were rapidly inhibited. Inhibition of protein synthesis did not occur before 24 hr of treatment. We conclude that rabbit blastocoelic fluid suppresses the proliferation of tumor cells via inhibition of RNA and DNA synthesis by a process which may involve the expression of growth-suppression gene(s).