Endotoxin as adjuvator to the transplantation of a mouse mammary tumor.

The mouse mammary tumor MT 296 was used in a further series of experiments on the implantation of tumor, plated out in vivo, from suspensions of individual cells. Lipopolysaccharide from S. typhosa was shown to exert an adjuvator influence. But this adjuvator, an endotoxin, had no direct effect on the suspended tumor cells, unlike the liver preparations previously reported. Lipopolysaccharide from S. typhosa was shown to act on the host. It made the host's connective tissue expanses more susceptible to successful implantation by the tumor cells. It did this only if present at the time these connective tissue expanses were split. The increased susceptibility, caused by splitting the connective tissue expanses in the presence of lipopolysaccharide, declined quickly after 24 hr. The structural changes wrought upon the connective tissues by splitting them in the presence of lipopolysaccharide are described. They show kinship to a Schwartzman reaction of the local type. Their possible role in the adjuvator effect on the plating of single cell suspensions of this tumor is discussed.