Immunity to transplantable carcinogen-induced fibrosarcomas in B2/B2 chickens. III. Tumor growth inhibition by local delayed hypersensitivity reactions to unrelated antigens.

Delayed hypersensitivity (DH) reaction to human Ig, corynebacterium parvum or allogeneic cells at the site of tumor cell injection, suppressed the fibrosarcoma (SCFS) growth in chickens. Spleen cells of SC chickens sensitized to human Ig or C. parvum suppressed SCFS growth when adoptively transferred with tumor cells, but only when the sensitizing antigen was present locally. This suppression did not occur in irradiated recipients, SCFS I cells injected into wattles of chickens immune to the tumor, provoked a local DH reaction. Spleen cells from donors sensitized to SCFS I adoptively transferred immunity to both SCFS I and SCFS II when cells of the two tumors were mixed together before injection, but not when SCFS II cells were injected alone. Tumor-specific and nontumor-specific DH may be essential for local suppression of fibrosarcoma growth in chickens.