Assessment of in situ host immunity to syngeneic tumors utilizing the multicellular spheroid model

In situ host immunity to the EMT6/Ro mammary sarcoma tumor was evaluated by implanting multicellular spheroids of this tumor into the peritoneal cavity of syngeneic BALB/cKa mice and determining the kinetics of host cell infiltration and tumor cell killing. Spheroids grown in vitro and implanted into unsensitized mice continued to grow resulting in peritoneal tumor masses and eventual death of the animal. However, in mice previously sensitized with a single injection of heavily irradiated EMT6/Ro cells, spheroids implanted intraperitoneally were rapidly infiltrated by host immune cells (macrophages, lymphocytes, and granulocytes), tumor cell killing was detectable within 1 day and by Day 6 essentially no clonogenic tumor cells were recoverable. Despite this marked loss of both total and clonogenic tumor cells, there was little decrease in the diameter of the spheroids recovered during this time period. Physical size thus does not provide a reliable estimation of tumor cell killing. The tumor cell killing was immunologically specific in that little killing was observed when EMT6/Ro spheroids were implanted into mice sensitized with other allogeneic or syngeneic tumor cells. Host cells from within the spheroids were found to be cytotoxic for EMT6/Ro tumor cells in a 51Cr release assay. A major portion of these cytotoxic cells appear to be T lymphocytes. However, other host cell types may also be involved in the in vivo tumor cell killing.