[The relationship between serum immunosuppressive acidic protein (IAP) and cellular immunity in the patients with gastric cancer].

IAP (immunosuppressive acidic protein), one of the serum immunosuppressive factors, was investigated in the preoperative patients with gastric cancer. IAP values in sera from patients increased in accordance with advances of the disease. In the study of quantitative correlation of IAP with immunological parameters, IAP values correlated slightly with lymphocyte proliferative response to PHA, while a significant correlation between IAP values and spontaneous suppressor T cell activities was noted (p less than 0.01). These results suggested that IAP as well as immune complex might serve as a signal for the activation of suppressor T cells in vivo.