Tumor rejection antigens on BALB3T3 cells transformed by activated oncogenes

The clonal expression of tumor rejection Ag (TRA) was analyzed on nine different clones derived from parental BALB3T3 cells that were transfected with activated H-ras, polyoma middle T (PyMT), c-myc, and v-src oncogenes. It was shown that Bras-h clone, which is an activated H-ras oncogene-induced transformant, expressed TRA as assessed in the transplantation study using syngeneic BALB/c mice. This TRA was not detected on parental BALB3T3 nontransformed cells, suggesting that TRA could be expressed in the BALB3T3 cell transformation. Furthermore, the cross-protection experiments indicated that this TRA was also conferred on other BALB3T3 transformants with high anchorage-independent growth potential such as an activated H-ras transformant Bras-d, and PyMT transformants BMT-f, BnMT-11, BnMT-20, except in the case of one H-ras transformant Bnr-12. In contrast, this TRA was not expressed on the transfectants with little or no anchorage independent growth potential such as a PyMT transfectant BnMT-4, a c-myc transfectant Bmyc-7, and a v-src transfectant Bsrc-7. We developed the mAb BRH19 that could react with TRA+ clones but not with TRA- clones. This mAb makes an immunoprecipitate, which is composed of a 50-kDa single polypeptide chain from Bras-h cell lysate. An injection to mice with this antigen could confer the protection against Bras-h challenge. These data indicate that the 50-kDa putative TRA molecule could be expressed in close association with the cell transformation, irrespective of the introduced oncogenes, and there may exist some regulatory mechanisms rather than individually distinct manners for the expression of TRA.