Protection against a nonimmunogenic mouse leukemia by an immunogenic variant obtained by mutagenesis.

The nonimmunogenic thymic leukemia TH, obtained in mouse strain CBA/Ht, was adapted to culture. By in vitro treatment of a clonal TH cell line with the mutagen N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, stable variant cell clones (tum-) were obtained that elicited a rejection response in syngeneic mice. Mice that had rejected a tum- variant were partially protected against a challenge with the original tumor. When spleen cells of these animals were restimulated in vitro, cytolytic T cells were obtained that were directed against an antigen present on the original tumor. The existence of these cytolytic effectors was confirmed by clonal analysis of the cytolytic response. No immune protection against TH was observed in mice that had been immunized with irradiated cells of the original TH tumor. These results confirm that tum- variants can elicit a syngeneic rejection response against tumors that are apparently devoid of transplantation immunogenicity. The experimental conditions and the results make it likely but not certain that the tumor-associated antigen detected on leukemia TH was present on the primary tumor.