Cell-mediated immunity to chemically xenogenized tumors. I. Inhibition by specific antisera and H-2 association of the novel antigens.

T cell-mediated proliferative and cytotoxic responses occur in vitro to syngeneic tumor cells antigenically altered by mutagen treatment. One such xenogenized variant of the murine L5178Y lymphoma elicits IgG antibodies reactive with determinants on variant cells that are not expressed at detectable levels on parental or normal cells of the same H-2d haplotype and are also unrelated to public specificities of H-2b or H-2k histocompatibility antigens. In the present study we investigated the effect of those antibodies on development of cell-mediated responses in vitro to the xenogenized cells used for induction of the humoral response. The proliferative reaction, generation of cytolytic activity and target cell lysis were all inhibited by the anti-xenogenized tumor immune serum, whereas the corresponding reactions to the parental cells by syngeneic or allogeneic effector lymphocytes were not. In order to investigate the possible H-2 association of T cell-mediated responses to xenogenized cells, we also examined the effect on those reactions of antibodies specific for Class I or Class II products of the H-2d complex. The results obtained suggested a role for I-Ad molecules in the T cell proliferative response to the xenogenized cells, and also indicated a preferential association of the cytotoxic response with H-2Kd determinants.