[Low sensitivity of choriocarcinoma cell lines to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha]

Sensitivity of cultured choriocarcinoma cell lines to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interferon (IFN)-gamma was examined and compared with that of other cultured tumor cell lines. Tumor cells were cultured with 1,000 mu/ml of TNF-alpha and/or 100 mu/ml of IFN-gamma for 24hr. Antitumor effects of the lymphokines were measured by 3H-thymidine uptake and tetrazolium salt (MTT) colorimetric assay. The results revealed that TNF-alpha and/or IFN-gamma had little anti-tumor effect on the choriocarcinoma cell lines tested, while they had cytostatic and cytotoxic effects on other cultured tumor cell lines including Panc-1 (pancreatic carcinoma cell line), Lovo (colon carcinoma cell line) and Ishikawa (uterine endometrial carcinoma cell line). We also examined the effect of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma on the expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antigens in these tumor cell lines by means of cellular binding radioimmunoassay. No enhancing effect was observed on choriocarcinoma cell lines after the treatment with TNF-alpha and/or IFN-gamma. These results suggested the existence of a unique property of choriocarcinoma cells which results in the resistance to host immune attacks.