Lymphokine activated killing of fresh human leukaemias

The relative susceptibility of 10 human leukaemias comprising acute phase leucocytes from 5 acute myeloid and 5 lymphoid neoplasms, and 2 immunoblastic lymphomas to killing by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), before and after target cell treatment with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), and by interleukin-2 (IL-2) activated peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) was investigated in short term 51Cr release assays using effector cells from 10 allogeneic donors. Optimal lectin-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (LDCC) was verified against K562 and L1210 cells and lymphokine-activated killing (LAK) against K562 and Daudi cells. Under these conditions, the majority of the leukaemias tested revealed only a finite sensitivity to any of the cytotoxic mechanisms, which was dependent on the donor origin of the effectors. The leukaemias were more consistently susceptible to LDCC than LAK and removal of adherent cells to enrich for the latter activity in effector populations, was ineffective. Lymphocytes from a patient in long term (greater than 5 yr) remission exhibited LAK against the autologous target E84, a natural killer (NK)-sensitive acute myelomonocytic leukaemia. These cells failed to cross-compete for lysis of K562 by LAK cells, suggesting the existence of different recognition structure(s) on the two targets.