[Humoral and cellular factors of immunity in mice with hepatoma 22A]

Levels of hepatic autoantigens, anti-hepatic antibodies and immune complexes in sera of C3HA mice bearing syngeneic weakly-immunogenic hepatoma 22a were measured. The level of autoantigens increased during tumor growth, while autoantibodies were not identified at all stages. Circulating immune complexes were shown to bind heterologous complement at early stages of hepatoma growth, but later they did not. Bound immune complexes were identified in the kidney by means of immunofluorescence. Blastogenic reaction of normal splenic cells did not change when cells were cultivated with serum of tumor-bearing mice obtained throughout tumor growth. The proliferative activity of tumor-bearers' lymphocytes decreased during cultivation with serum taken at the terminal stages of tumor growth only. However, there was no correlation with the presence of free hepatic antigen and immune complexes in sera of hepatoma-bearing mice.