Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity against tumor cells. I. Cultivated bone marrow-derived macrophages kill tumor targets.

Mouse bone marrow cells are cultivated in a liquid culture system in the presence of fibroblast conditioned medium. Under these conditions, proliferation of macrophage and granulocyte precursor cells is induced. Cells of a 5-day-old culture are shown to act as cytotoxic effector cells against tumor targets such as P815, E14, YAC and L5178Y. The effector cell is of macrophage origin since it is susceptible to treatment with the alloantiserum Mph-1.2 plus complement. The kinetics of the reaction resembles the kinetics for killer (K) lymphocyte lysis. In contrast to bone marrow cells, peritoneal macrophages do not show cytotoxic activity against antibody-coated tumor targets although they are susceptible to activation to cytotoxicity by lymphokines. The possible relationship of bone marrow effector cells and K lymphocytes is discussed.