Extraction of tumor-specific antigen from cells and plasma membranes of line-10 hepatoma.

Tumor-specific antigen was extracted with 3 M KCl from line-10 guinea pig hepatoma cells. The yield of antigenic activity, estimated by production of delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity reactions in line-10 immune guinea pigs, was 10-30% of the antigen present in intact cells. By ultracentrifugation criteria, the extracted antigen was soluble. Gel filtration, ion exchange chromatography, and salting-out studies showed that the antigen was heterogeneous in size and net charge. The possibility that 3 M KCl extracted a homogeneous population of molecules associating into polymers of various sizes at low ionic strength was ruled out by heterogeneity on Sephadex G-200 chromatography at high ionic strength. After osmotic lysis of sucrose-loaded line-10 cells, whole plasma membranes or large membrane fragments were obtained in a yield of about 20%. The isolation procedure did not cause detectable loss of membrane antigenic activity. The membranes had 33 skin test U/mg membrane protein, compared to the intact cell value of 1.7 skin test U/mg cell protein. Extracts of plasma membranes had 10-20% of the antigenic activity of the starting membrane material. In contrast to the wide variety of proteins liberated from intact cells, much of the protein extracted from the membranes was in the molecular weight range above 250,000.