Chemiluminescence assay of phagocyte activity in mice bearing neuroblastoma: effect of in vitro culture of the tumor.

Phagocyte activity in mice bearing neuroblastoma (NB) has been assayed using a chemiluminescence (CL) technique and proves to be dependent on the pretreatment of the NB cells used to induce the tumor. Indeed, original NB C 1300 tumor, which is maintained by serial in vivo passages induces highly triggered peritoneal phagocytes, producing large amounts of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI). On the contrary, C 1300 cells cultured in vitro for a few passages and established lines as well as clones derived from the original tumor fail to induce this triggering. However, this decreased phagocyte stimulation can be regained at full extent after a few in vivo passages of the tumor cells.