Reactivity of human lymphocytes to teratoma preparations as revealed by the macrophage electrophoretic mobility (MEM) technique.

By means of the MEM technique, the lymphokine release by human lymphocytes has been measured after exposure to 3M KCl extracts from malignant teratoma tissue. Clear-cut responses were found in 149 out of 171 cancer patients (87%) regardless of the primary cancer site. In contrast, only 15 out of 93 (16%) individuals from a control group without detectable malignant disease gave such a response. Subdivision of that control group showed, however, that only 1 of 46 healthy blood donors, but 14 of 47 (30%) hospital patients with benign tumours (7 of 19), inflammatory diseases or degenerative and metabolic disorders (7 of 28) reacted to the teratoma-derived material. It appears to be possible that malignant teratoma tissues contain a mixture of oncofetal or phase-specific antigens which correspond to the multifarious differentiation structures of the three germ layers developing in such tumours. If the lymphocyte response of tumour patients is due to the sensitization to analogous tumour-associated antigens in vivo, it remains to be clarified whether or not the less frequent lymphocyte response of hospital patients without neoplastic diseases may be directed to another quality of antigens.