Nature and potential of the reactive response to mouse mammary adenocarcinoma cells engineered with interleukin-2, interleukin-4 or interferon-gamma genes.

A spontaneous mammary adenocarcinoma of BALB/c mice was transduced with the murine interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4, and interferon (IFN)-gamma genes. The ability of clones releasing IL-2, IL-4 or IFN-gamma to form tumors after s.c. challenge was compared to the TS/A parental cells (TS/A-pc) and to cells transduced with the neomycin resistance gene alone. Cytokine-gene-transduced clones activated a strong inflammatory reaction. The elicited by IL-2 and IL-4-gene-transduced cells efficiently led to tumor rejection. This reaction depended on the activation of several cell mechanisms, those classed as nonspecific being predominant. The repertoire of reactive leukocytes recruited in the reaction varies as a function of the secreted cytokine. The growth of a secondary contralateral TS/A-pc challenge after clone rejection was significantly impaired.