Lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cell mediated killing of human glioma: effect of pretreating glioma with various membrane modifying agents.

The killing of human glioma by lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells was studied. LAK cells generated by culturing recombinant interleukin-2 (IL-2) with human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) obtained from normal volunteers markedly lysed allogeneic glioma grown in tissue culture. Susceptibility of glioma to lysis by LAK cells was abrogated by pretreating the glioma cells with trypsin or chymotrypsin, but was unaffected by pretreatment with hydrocortisone, neuraminidase, glycosidases or sodium periodate. These results suggest that the cell surface determinant on human glioma cells responsible for its tumor selective lysis by LAK is a protein sensitive to trypsin and chymotrypsin.