Preliminary identification of a tumor-associated glycoprotein in bilharzial bladder cancer urine.

A tumor-associated antigen was preliminarily identified in urine from bilharzial (squamous-cell carcinoma) bladder cancer patients. Monospecific rabbit antisera were made by immunization with concentrated bladder cancer urine and exhaustive absorption with insoluble normal human serum and urine. The urine tumor-associated antigen was identical to an antigen from 3M KCl bladder tumor extract by immunodiffusion. The antigen in urine was found in nine of 10 bladder cancer patients and was absent from normal urine and serum by immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis. The antigen was a concanavalin-A-binding glycoprotein which was anodal on immunoelectrophoresis. It was stable up to 2 years at -20 degrees C and did not cross-react with carcinoembryonic antigen or with Schistosoma haematobium antigens.

Assessment of immediate and delayed hypersensitivity skin tests with Schistosoma mansoni adult worm antigen in a rural Egyptian population.

Immediate and delayed hypersensitivity responses to schistosome adult worm skin test antigen were assessed in 418 farmers in Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. All were from a population frame being epidemiologically evaluated for bilharzial urinary bladder cancer and thus were all 20 years old or older. A control, group of 108 adult urban dwellers without antecedent or current history of schistosomiasis were also tested. Ninety eight percent (411/418) of farmers and 35% (38/108) of controls showed reaginic hypersensitivity to 20 micrograms protein antigen. While 43% (180/418) of farmers and 4.6% (5/108) of controls showed positive delayed responses. Schistosoma haematobium eggs were found in 6% on urine cytology smears (Papanicolaou) and in 5% by Nuclepore filtration. A subsample of 97 individuals showed 21% to have S. haematobium eggs in urine by a traditional sedimentation technique. Immediate skin tests were equally positive in egg positive or egg negative farmers but delayed responses were 55% positive in the former and 26% in the latter. It is suggested that the delayed hypersensitivity skin test may be more specific and useful in epidemiologic surveys. The changing prevalence of S. haematobium infections in the Nile Delta is briefly discussed.

Effect of storage in recipient's blood on the immunogenicity of tooth allografts in rabbits.

Dental allografts can immunize recipients against skin allografts because some antigens are shared between teeth and skin. The effect of storage in the recipient's blood (ten days, 4 C) on the immunogenicity of subcutaneously allotransplanted rabbit teeth was examined. Storage in blood depressed the antigenicity of teeth, as detected by prolongation of the rejection time of second-set skin grafts in comparison with teeth stored in saline solution, or fresh, nonstored teeth. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanism of this procedure.

Transplantation immunity of rats induced by hepatoma cells treated with heteroantibody.

Tumor cells from rat hepatomas, AH-414 and AH-64A induced by azo dye, were preincubated in vitro with different dilutions of rabbit anti-hepatoma serum. Then 10(6) cells were inoculated intraperitoneally into Donryu rats. After 6 weeks, rats surviving without tumors showed resistance to further challenge with the same tumor cells. The ratio of the number of surviving rats after challenge with 10(5) fresh tumor cells to those surviving after inoculation with serum-treated tumor cells was maximal using dilutions of antiserum of 1:240 with AH-414 tumor cells and of 1:400 with AH-64A cells. Pooled sera from AH-64A-resistant rats, 2 weeks after a 3rd challenge with 10(7) fresh tumor cells (RRS Lot III), had a cytotoxic effect on AH-64A cells at dilutions of up to 1:64 while sera isolated after the 1st or 2nd challenge (RRS Lot I or II) were weakly cytotoxic. The cytotoxicity was complement-dependent and stable on heating at 56 degrees for 30 min. RRS Lot III was active in the indirect immunofluorescence test. Rabbit anti-rat liver serum did not induce resistance to AH-64A in Donryu rats although the dilutions used had the same immune adherence or cytotoxic titer as rabbit anti-hepatoma serum. Rabbit anti-Donryu rat hepatoma serum failed to induce resistance to cells of a 3-methylcholanthrene-induced sarcoma, AMC 60, of ACI/N rats. The correlation between the immune adherence and cytotoxic titers of the rabbit antiserum and its effectiveness in sensitizing the animals against tumor cells is discussed.

A tumor-specific cytotoxic and neutralizing factor in rats immunized with ascites hepatoma induced by azo dyes.

Transplantation immunity of Donryu rats against ascites hepatoma AH-64A induced by azo dye was demonstrated by intraperitoneal injection of tumor cells pretreated with heteroantibodies in vitro. Hyper-immunity was induced by successive challenges with fresh tumor cells. The cytotoxic effect of the serum of resistant rats (RRS) against AH-64A tumor cells was not reduced after absorption with normal rat liver cells, but was slightly reduced after absorption with normal rat spleen cells. The cytotoxicity was absorbed completely with 5 times 10(6) AH-64A tumor cells. AH-64A, -B, -C, and -D are ascites hepatoma cell lines originating from a single Donryu rat. AH-64A and AH-64B cross-reacted with RRS while AH-64C and AH-64D, chemically induced DBLA-6 leukemia cells and normal lymph node cells of rats, did not react with RRS in indirect immunofluorescence and cytotoxicity tests. A neutralization test was carried out by treating 2 times 10(5) tumor cell with either RRS or immune spleen cell in vitro and then injecting them subcutaneously into irradiated rats (400 R). It was found that 1:20 dilution of RRS protected the rats against AH-64A tumor cell growth while 1:40 and 1:80 dilutions of RRS caused some protection. A subcutaneous tumor mass developed after transplantation of tumor cells treated with RRS, but after about 2 weeks this began to decrease in size and disappeared completely within 6 weeks after transplantation. Treatment of AH-64A tumor cells with immune spleen cells at cell-to-cell ratios of 1:200 and 1:100 caused complete neutralization while normal spleen cells at a ratio of 1:200 had slight effect. Treat;ent with immune spleen cells prevented tumor growth from t;e start. Most of the surviving animals were resistant to c,allenge with 1 times 10(5) fresh AH-64A cells. RRS was fractionated by cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis and the amounts of beta1- and gamma-globulin fractions were found to be 48 and 42% more than in normal rat serum. The immunoelectrophoretic pattern of resistant rat serum showed a stronger IgM precipitin line than that of normal rat serum.