ABSTRACT
Tumor-Associated Lymphocytes (TAL) were isolated from peritoneal fluids of six ovarian cancer patients and pleural effusion from eight breast cancer patients, respectively. In one case we obtained ascitic fluid as well as pleural effusion because of intraabdominal metastatic breast carcinoma. The collected cells were cultured in a complete medium and supplemented with human interleukin-2 (nIL-2) in a concentration of 1000 Units/ml. Phenotyping was not always possible due to rapid decay of the cells. Cytotoxicity was determined with a fluorescence-based assay, in some cases at different stages of cell growth. In two cases TAL from ascitic fluids showed increased cytotoxic activity after a longer cultivation period. TAL from pleural effusions showed cytotoxic activity against the target cell lines in two cases only. Some of these TAL did not proliferate any more but died within 24 h. With the functional analysis we wanted to investigate the cytotoxic potential against natural killer (NK)-sensitive and NK-resistant (Raji) cell lines. The results demonstrate the ability of some of the TAL populations to destroy tumor cells.
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating/immunology , Ovarian Neoplasms/pathology , Adult , Aged , Ascitic Fluid/pathology , Cytotoxicity, Immunologic , Female , Humans , Immunophenotyping , Interleukin-2/pharmacology , Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating/pathology , Middle Aged , Pleural Effusion/pathology , T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic/immunology , T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic/pathology , Tumor Cells, CulturedABSTRACT
Functional analysis of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from 46 healthy donors is described. For quantitation of cytotoxic activity a fluorescence-based assay is performed with commercially available human tumor cell lines as targets. For evaluation of natural-killer cell activity, the cell line K562 (NK-cell sensitive) and for T-cell activity Raji cells (NK-cell resistant) are used as targets. Since we are not using autologous cells as targets we are measuring the function of non MHC-restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. The results show a median NK-cell activity of 77.4% (given in % lysis) and a median T-cell activity of 21.4% in healthy individuals at an effector-/target-cell ratio (E/T ratio) of 40:1. For correlating immunological parameters such as functionality of PBL from tumor patients with the progression of tumor growth, normal values are of great importance.
