Studies on the synthetic capacity and antigenic expression of glutaraldehyde-fixed target cells

Mastocytoma cells (P815 of the DBA/2 strain) treated with increasing concentrations of glutaraldehyde were concurrently evaluated for their ability to incorporate exogeneous uridine, thymidine, and amino acids. The antigenic expression and membrane integrity of these treated cells were assayed by measuring their susceptibility to lysis by antibody and complement and by T-effector cells. The concentrations of glutarladehyde required to effect target cell antigen display were greater than those required to inhibit totally the cell's protein and nucleic acid synthetic processes. Thus, P815 cells treated with 0.15% glutaraldehyde for 10 sec were unable to incorporate either amino acids or nucleotides into macromolecules, but were readily lysed by effector T cell populations, and by alloantibody in the presence of complement. Target cells treated with glutaraldehyde concentrations in excess of 0.25% for 10 sec were resistant to both forms of immune lysis. In keeping with these observations, monolayers of P815 cells treated for 10 sec with 0.15% glutaraldehyde, were capable of specifically depleting T-effector cells from a cytolytically-active spleen cell population. After treatment with higher concentrations of glutaraldehyde (0.3%), however, the monolayers lost their capacity to adsorb effector cells. Although P815 cells treated with glutaraldehyde continued to exhibit H-2d alloantigen, neither these cells nor glutaraldehyde-treated DBA/2 spleen cells induced significant blastogenesis or stimulated the production of cytolytically active effector cells in mixed leukocyte cultures.