Plasmacytoma spleen colonization: a sensitive, quantitative in vivo assay for idiotype-specific immune suppression of MOPC-315.

A spleen colony-forming assay for the measurement of idiotype-specific transplantation resistance to MOPC-315 is described. The assay is highly quantitative, sensitive, reproducible, less time consuming and distinctly superior to conventional in vivo assays which measure tumor incidence, tumor size, and/or host survival time after tumor challenge. The assay directly measures those clonogenic cells of the MOPC-315 myeloma which have a sufficient proliferative capacity to form macroscopic splenic foci within 14 days after intravenous challenge.