Effects of a single injection of anti-asialo GM1 serum on natural cytotoxicity and the growth of a regressive colonic tumor in syngeneic rats.

The REGb tumor cell line is a cloned variant of the DHD-K12 cell line, established from a colon carcinoma chemically induced in the rat. Unlike the parent DHD-K12 cell line, or other clones, which give progressive tumors when inoculated to the syngeneic rat, REGb cells produce tumors which regress in 3 to 5 weeks and never cause metastasis. In order to explore the role of natural killer (NK) cells in REGb tumor regression, each rat was given one injection of anti-asialoGM1 (anti-asGM1) serum, a known inhibitor of NK activity. This injection was done 24 hr before REGb cell challenge. This injection significantly depressed the in vitro cytotoxicity of peripheral blood lymphocytes on REGb cells for 2 weeks. REGb tumors grew larger and regressed later in the treated animals than those in the controls. Furthermore, a progressive or recurrent tumor was observed in 4 out of 10 treated rats, giving lung and/or lymph-node metastases in 2 cases. Immuno-histological study of the cells infiltrating the REGb tumors in control and treated animals showed a decrease number of asGM1+ and OX8+ lymphocytes, presumably NK cells, after anti-asGM1 treatment. An increase in number of macrophages was demonstrated in the progressive tumors of treated animals. These results suggest that NK cells play an important role in the initial stage of the regression TSb tumors in untreated syngeneic rats.