The induction of human peripheral blood lymphoid colonies by conditioned media from human tumour cell lines.

Conditioned medium (CM) from 29 human tumour cell lines and 3 malignant pleural fluids were tested for their ability to stimulate lymphoid colony formation in semi-solid agar; 9 of 14 malignant melanomas, 3 of 6 colonic carcinomas, 2 of 5 ovarian carcinomas, 3 of 4 breast carcinomas and 1 of 3 pleural fluids from breast cancer patients contained colony-stimulating activity (CSA) for human peripheral blood lymphoid cells (PBL) in semi-solid agar. Conditioned media also stimulated PBL proliferation in liquid medium; these effects were dose dependent. With the exception of one pleural fluid, extensive dialysis of CM did not significantly increase colony formation; CM from two tumour cell lines demonstrated a significant decrease in the induction of colony formation after dialysis.