Quantitative in vitro measurement of simian virus 40 tumor-specific antigens

Humoral antibodies, specific for the SV40 tumor-specific transplantation antigen, can be detected by an in vitro cytotoxic assay. (51)Cr-labeled SV40-transformed target cells are selectively killed in the presence of specific antibody and rabbit complement. Inhibition of cytotoxicity can be used to measure the antigen concentration and specific activity on different SV40-transformed cell lines. The assay described has several advantages when compared to other methods currently available to detect the specific SV40 antigen: it is simple, rapid, objective, reproducible, and quantitative.