Antigenic specificities on murine sarcoma cells. Reciprocal relationship between normal transplantation antigens (H-2) and tumor-specific immunogenicity.

Five methylcholanthrene-induced sarcomas were compared for their capacity to (a) absorb monospecific H-2 antisera, (b) induce tumor-specific immunity in syngeneic mice, and (c) metastasize early to the lungs. Comparison of the uptakes of monospecific H-2 antisera by the five different tumors showed that each of the tumors had a high, intermediate, or low surface representation of all of the seven specificities tested. No antigenic specificity was completely absent from any tumor, and no tumor had an unusually large or small amount of any individual specificity. The tumors could be placed in the sequence from one to five with respect to their H-2 antigenicity. The same five tumors were also ranked with respect to their capacity to induce a tumor-specific immune response in syngeneic mice. The tumor-specific immunogenicity had an inverse relationship to the H-2 antigenicity in that highly immunogenic tumors were those that had quantitatively less H-2 antigen on their surface and vice versa. Early metastases to the lung was associated with low levels of tumor-specific immunogenicity and high levels of H-2 antigenicity.