Brooks C G, Rees R C, Leach R H
Eur J Immunol. 1979 Feb;9(2):159-65. doi: 10.1002/eji.1830090213.
Several rat tumor cell cultures were deliberately infected with three species of mycoplasma commonly found as contaminants of cell lines grown in vitro, and the effect of mycoplasma infection on the results of cytotoxicity assays was examined. Lymph node cells and spleen cells from normal animals showed an apparently high spontaneous cytotoxic activity against tumor cells infected with either M. arginini or M. hyorhinis, but the reactivity against cells infected with M. orale was not significantly higher than that against uninfected cells. The high reactivity towards tumor cells infected with M. arginini and M. hyorhinis bore a close resemblence to natural cell-mediated immunity in that spleen cells were much more reactive than lymph node cells, spleen cells from nude mice were as effective as spleen cells from normal mice, and the reaction crossed both strain and species barriers. However, closer examination revealed that the cytotoxic effects were directly caused by depletion of arginine or other essential nutrients from the medium. These findings imply that a cautious approach should be taken when interpreting certain aspects of spontaneous cell-mediated cytotoxicity, and that the greatest care be taken to ensure that the cells used as targets in any cytotoxicity test are mycoplasma-free.
几种大鼠肿瘤细胞培养物被故意感染了三种通常作为体外培养细胞系污染物而发现的支原体，并检测了支原体感染对细胞毒性试验结果的影响。正常动物的淋巴结细胞和脾细胞对感染精氨酸支原体或猪鼻支原体的肿瘤细胞表现出明显较高的自发细胞毒性活性，但对感染口腔支原体的细胞的反应性并不显著高于对未感染细胞的反应性。对感染精氨酸支原体和猪鼻支原体的肿瘤细胞的高反应性与天然细胞介导的免疫有密切相似之处，即脾细胞比淋巴结细胞反应性更强，裸鼠的脾细胞与正常小鼠的脾细胞一样有效，并且这种反应跨越了品系和物种障碍。然而，进一步检查发现，细胞毒性作用是由培养基中精氨酸或其他必需营养物质的消耗直接引起的。这些发现意味着在解释自发细胞介导的细胞毒性的某些方面时应谨慎行事，并且应格外小心以确保在任何细胞毒性试验中用作靶标的细胞无支原体污染。
