Antigenicity of UV radiation-induced murine tumors correlates positively with the level of adenosine deaminase activity.

The specific activities of adenosine deaminase (ADA) in 16 murine tumor cell lines derived from seven UV light-induced neoplasms (melanoma and fibrosarcoma) were determined. In each case, the specific activity of ADA correlated positively with the antigenicity of the tumor cells. Highly antigenic cell lines that regress upon introduction into syngeneic hosts had on average 4- to 6-fold higher ADA specific activities than cell lines of low antigenicity that grow progressively in syngeneic hosts. The antigenic differences are probably not related to intracellular cAMP levels, as the level of cAMP differed only 2-fold between the two groups of cell lines.