In vitro demonstration of in situ autologous tumour-cell cytotoxicity in MSV-induced tumours in A/SN mice.

Moloney sarcoma-virus (MSV)-induced tumours in A/Sn mice have been dispersed with collagenase and DNase 8-15 days after virus inoculation, and both "sarcoma" and inflammatory cells separated by sedimentation velocity and adherence techniques. The isolated "sarcoma" cells had the morphological characteristics of atypical cells (i.e. cytoplasmic blebbing, vacuolization and prominent nucleoli) and were easily adapted to in vitro growth. As few as 2 x 10(3) of these cells inoculated i.m. produced new tumours within 8 days of injection in both syngeneic and allogeneic mice. Also, cell-free supernatant from "sarcoma"-cell cultures produced tumours, indicating that the successful transplantation of the "sarcoma" cells was probably due to production of infective virus. Cells cytotoxic in vitro against the "sarcoma" cells were present within both spleen and tumour of the tumour donors, but not in the spleens of normal mice. The cytotoxicity was specific against virus-infected cells, since in a mixture of virus-positive (gp 70) and virus-negative cells, positive cells were removed while negative cells were not affected, as measured by a visual cytotoxicity assay using immunostaining. Although T cells could be isolated from the MSV-induced tumours, these cells did not appear to mediate the cytotoxicity detected against the MSV "sarcoma" cells. These results suggest that early MSV infections might be sensitive to cytotoxic mechanisms distinct from those reported with established MLV- or MSV-induced tumour lines.