Motility and tumoricidal activity of interleukin-2-stimulated lymphocytes

The motility of murine splenic lymphocytes stimulated nonspecifically by recombinant interleukin 2 (RIL-2) was studied in a three-dimensional collagen-gel system. Nonadherent BALB/c splenic lymphocytes were cultured in medium containing Cetus RIL-2 (700 to 1000 units/ml) or excipient control. They were then allowed to locomote randomly for 16 to 18 h into slabs of type I rat tail collagen gel. The gels were digested with collagenase, and total lymphocyte populations and motile subpopulations were collected and compared with respect to their lymphokine-activated killer activity (measured as 4-h cytotoxicity against the natural killer-resistant mammary adenocarcinoma line 410.4), their natural killer activity (measured as 4-h cytotoxicity versus lymphoma YAC-1), and their subset distribution (defined by immunofluorescence). Some of the slabs were not digested but fixed for measurement of leading-front distance. RIL-2-stimulated lymphocyte populations displayed greater motility than unstimulated populations; the mean leading front distance was 2.4 times greater, and the percentage of cells exhibiting motility was approximately doubled. The most motile RIL-2-stimulated cells, however, were not the most tumoricidal. Motile subpopulations displayed approximately 25 to 60% lower lymphokine-activated killer activity than did the total populations from which they were derived. Natural killer activity followed a similar pattern. Motile subpopulations contained a lower proportion of asialo-GM1+ and T-null cells than did total populations and a higher proportion of L3T4+ cells. Chemokinetic stimulation with alpha-interferon increased overall motility, but the lymphokine-activated killer activity of the motile subpopulation was still lower than that of the total population. Lymphocyte motility is important in the infiltration of tumors and other inflammatory lesions. The results indicate that the most tumoricidal lymphocytes in RIL-2-stimulated populations may not be the best tumor infiltrators, and that the tumoricidal activity of circulating lymphocytes may be a misleading indicator of the effectiveness of immunotherapy.