Characterization of defectiveness in endogenous antigen presentation of novel murine cells established from methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcomas.

Three cell lines (4A1, 4C2 and 6D1 cells) derived from fibrosarcoma induced by the inoculation of 3-methylcholanthrene into C3H/HeN (H-2k) mice were examined for their ability to present antigens to CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). 6D1 and 4C2 cells were deficient in presenting endogenously synthesized influenza virus antigens to CTL, but they were able to present antigens when they were sensitized with a synthetic epitope peptide. The expression of the H-2 Kk gene in 4C2 and 6D1 cells was much reduced and was detectable only with Northern blot hybridization. The expression of two transporter genes (TAP1 and TAP2), examined by Northern hybridization, was also reduced in both cells, and negligible particularly in 4C2 cells. Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) treatment of these cells induced expression of Kk, TAP1 and TAP2 genes and rescued the defect of class I-restricted antigen presentation in 4C2 and 6D1 cells. Even after this treatment, however, antigen-presentation capability of 4C2 cells was still much lower than that of normal 4A1 cells. This finding suggests that 4C2 cells might have an additional defective gene(s), whose products are involved in the processing of class I-restricted antigen, besides the Kk and TAP genes, and this may explain the difficulty of 4C2 cells to induce tumour-specific immunity, as described previously. To our knowledge, the 4C2 cell is the first tumour cell postulated to have more than three defective genes involved in class I-restricted antigen presentation.