Inhibition of macrophage Ia antigen expression by shed plasma membrane vesicles from metastatic murine melanoma lines.

Shed plasma membrane-derived vesicles from metastatic variants of the murine B16 melanoma were examined for their ability to inhibit the induction of murine immune region-associated (Ia) antigen expression on macrophages, the initial step in the formation of an immune response. Membrane material that appears as a greater than 50 million-dalton fraction on column chromatography is found only in conditioned media from tumor cells and not in culture media from normal cells, such as murine 3T3 cells. Membrane vesicles from both metastatic variants B16-F1 (low lung colonizing) and B16-F10 (high lung colonizing) were taken up by macrophages; however, only membrane vesicles isolated from the B16-F10 cultures exhibited significant inhibitory activity for Ia induction. This inhibition appears to result from enhanced prostaglandin synthesis, since treatment with aspirin can reverse the membrane vesicle-induced inhibition. The inhibitory component(s) released into the media was demonstrated to be predominantly associated with membrane vesicles; however, the component(s) retained its activity after Triton X-100 treatment, indicating that the intact membrane vesicle was not necessary for the action of the inhibitory material. Treatments with heat (65 degrees C) and proteases (papain) indicated that the inhibitory component(s) is a heat-labile protein.