Human tumor--lymphocyte interaction in vitro: blastogenesis correlated to detectable immunoglobulin in the biopsy

Binding of radioiodinated anti-immunoglobulin (Ig) reagent assayed by acid elutable radioactivity was shown in 18 of 44 cell suspensions (41%) prepared from surgical specimens of human tumors. Aliquots of these biopsies were admixed to autologous lymphocytes and in 13 cases they induced stimulation of DNA synthesis. In only one of these 13 cases was the anti-Ig reagent bound, while among the 26 biopsies with low or no binding capacity 12 (46%) were stimulatory, indicating that immunoglobulin-containing biopsies are not stimulatory. Experiments on 32 lymphocyte preparations from different lymphoid organs suggest that the immunoglobulin detected in the tumor-cell suspension is not derived from the infiltrating lymphoid cells.