Immunotherapy of a chemically-induced sarcoma in rats: characterization of the effector T cell subset and nature of suppression.

Chemically-induced sarcomas (BC5), established subcutaneously and growing progressively in BN rats, were completely eliminated by i.v. infusion of syngeneic effector cells. The effector cells were generated from BN spleen cells immune to BC5 in a mixed lymphocyte-tumor cell culture (MLTC). Generation of a high yield of effector cells that were efficacious in eliminating BC5 in vivo necessitated: depletion of macrophages from immune spleen populations, before preparation of MLTC; addition back to MLTC of a small number of macrophages from normal spleens to attain a level of 0.5% of the spleen cells in culture; and addition of T cell growth factor on day 5 of MLTC. With these conditions a subset of T cells was expanded. They were blast cells with surface markers W3/25 and Ia, which exhibited no cytotoxic activity in vitro, and probably functioned as a helper or amplifier element in the tumor-bearing host. Effector cells generated in MLTC with BC5, treated with mitomycin C, were specific for BC5 in vivo and did not affect growth of a viral-induced BN tumor.