Cultured T lymphocytes cytotoxic for a syngeneic lymphoma: derivation in Con A-conditioned medium and in vivo activity.

Cultures of murine T lymphocytes with cytotoxic activity towards syngeneic RBL-5 lymphoma cells were obtained from spleen cells of immunized animals after co-culture in vivo with irradiated RBL-5 cells. At different times after initiation, these mixed tumour-lymphocyte cultures (MTLC) were multiplied by transfer to conditioned medium (CM) containing T cell growth factor (TCGF) activity, produced by the stimulation of rat spleen cells with Con A. The effect of residual Con A was investigated by the addition of specific blocking sugar, alpha-methyl mannoside (alpha MM), to the CM in some experiments. This procedure did not reduce the growth potential of the cells, and resulted in a dramatic increase in the cytotoxic activity of the cultures as measured by a 4-hr 51Cr-release assay. The cultures multiplied 1 X 10(3)-fold over a 3-week period with retention of cytotoxicity for RBL-5 cells at levels up to 70-fold greater than those of the MTLCs from which they were derived. The cultured cells, when injected i.p. together with RBL-5 cells into normal mice, were shown to mediate a significant prolongation of the survival of the treated animals. This effect was, however, less dramatic than had been expected from the in vitro results. It would therefore appear that, while cells grown in tissue culture using Con A-conditioned medium may fulfill some theoretical requirements for the immunotherapy of experimental tumours, other factor(s) are required for full protection.