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Stimulation of Immune Mechanisms against Mammary Tumors by Incomplete T Cell Depletion^1,2,

Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, and the Cancer Research Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Abstract

When BALB/cfC3H females are subjected to continuous suction thymectomy, a procedure that results in retention of thymic remnants, the latent period before tumor development is significantly prolonged. However, when BALB/cfC3H females are thymectomized by controlled suction, a procedure which removes thymic lobes completely, there is no effect on mammary tumorigenesis. Our results show that incomplete T cell depletion causes premature onset of non-T cell cytotoxicity, an augmentation of T cell cytotoxicity, and an alteration in a serum-blocking activity to mammary tumor target cells as tested in microcytotoxicity assay. On the other hand, complete neonatal thymectomy effectively and completely abrogates immune response to mammary tumor target cells. The inability of completely thymectomized mice to generate an immune response to MTV suggests (but does not prove) that MTV-induced mammary tumor target cell surface antigens are thymus-dependent.

Footnotes

¹ This research was supported by National Institutes of Health Research Grants CA 05388, FO3-CA-52402, and AI 8817-07. Part of these studies were performed while P. B. B. was a research professor in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, University of California.

² Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Phyllis B. Blair, Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720.

³ Present address: Clinical Immunology, Rheumatology Section, Veterans Administration Hospital, San Francisco, California 94121.

⁴ Present address: Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.