Differential variations of sensitivities of TNP-modified lymphoma cells to lysis by cytotoxic lymphocytes and by antibodies.

Cultured RDM4 cells were modified with 1 mM trinitrobenzene sulphonate (TNBS) and assayed for lysis by either in vitro generated cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) or complement-mediated humoral immunity. It was observed that cells harvested from the exponentially growing phase culture (as assessed by an important incorporation of thymidine) were more sensitive to CTL, but less sensitive to humoral immunity, than cells harvested from resting phase culture. Radiolabelled [14C]TNBS permitted to show that exponentially growing cells bound about 5 times less TNBS than cells at the resting phase. It is therefore concluded that the efficiency of the CTL on TNP-modified cells is not proportional to the density of TNP-groups on the targets, and that CTL on the one hand, and complement-mediated humoral immunity on the other hand, must have very different cell surface requirements to be able to lyze the targets.