Functional activity in vivo of effector T cell populations. I. Antitumor activity exhibited by allogeneic mixed leukocyte culture cells.

The in vivo activity of murine cytolytic T lymphocyte-containing effector cell populations generated in vitro was studied in a tumor allograft model system by monitoring the elimination of 131I-IUdR-labeled tumor cells with whole-body counting techniques. Mice were irradiated sublethally and 16 hr later 131I-labeled tumor cells were injected either subcutaneously or i.p. Simultaneously, graded doses of various effector cell populations were injected i.v. and the mice were counted daily to assess the potential elimination of the radiolabeled tumor cells. Thus, allogeneic 2 degrees mixed leukocyte culture cells were observed to eliminate allogeneic but not syngeneic tumor cells in a dose-dependent manner, with as few as 0.2 x 10(6) effector cells causing significant destruction of 2 x 10(6) allogeneic tumor cells. The protective effect of the mixed leukocyte culture cells was considerably reduced when Lyt-2+-bearing lymphocytes were eliminated by treatment with monoclonal antibody plus complement. In additional experiments, Lyt-2+ lymphocytes positively selected by enrichment on antibody-coated petri dishes gave efficient protection, in the absence of Lyt-2- cells. Surprisingly, when several different cloned, specific, long-term allogeneic cytolytic T cells lines were injected either i.p. of i.v., tumor cell destruction was observed only after i.p. injection.