Identification and cytotoxic reactivity of inflammatory cells recovered from progressing or regressing syngeneic UV-induced murine tumors.

Most tumors induced in C3H mice by ultraviolet (UV) light are immunologically rejected by normal syngeneic recipients, but will grow progressively in immunosuppressed mice and in mice treated with UV light. In this study we compared the composition and cytotoxic activity of the inflammatory cell infiltrate from tumors transplanted into syngeneic UV-irradiated or unirradiated mice. Tumor fragments were implanted in either normal (regressor) or UV-treated (progressor) mice, and removed on various days after implantation and mechanically dissociated. The cells were examined by immunofluorescence for theta and immunoglobulin markers, stained for morphologic examination, and tested for cytotoxicity against the tumor. No significant differences were noted in numbers of macrophages, granulocytes, or B cells recovered from progressing or regressing tumors on day 6, the time of greatest activity. However, the numbers of T cells recovered from tumor fragments implanted in normal mice was approximately 3-fold that recovered from tumor fragments implanted in UV-treated mice. Lymphocytes recovered from regressing tumor fragments were specifically cytotoxic for that tumor in a microcytotoxicity test; those from progressing tumor fragments were not cytotoxic.