Transplantability and MHC antigen expression of tumor mast cells

A cloned cell line was established from tumor cells spontaneously developed in a coculture of an autoreactive T cell line (1/+ T1) and 30 Gy-irradiated MRL/+ spleen cells with Con A supernatants. Morphological studies and studies of histamine content and modes of histamine release after stimulation with compound 48/80 revealed that the cell line (MRL-MC3) had mast cell characteristics. MRL-MC3 was transplantable not only to MRL/+, MRL/lpr and AKR/J (H-2k) mice but also to BALB/c and (BALB/c x DBA/2) F1 (H-2d) mice, although the allogeneic mice survived twice as long as syngeneic mice after i.v. injection. In addition, after i.v. injection, the mast cells infiltrated the livers and spleens of syngeneic (MRL/+) mice, however the lymph nodes around the mesenterium to the parapylorus in allogeneic (BALB/c) mice. A mast cell line (BALB-MC) was also established from a lymph node of MRL-MC3-injected BALB/c mice. Cell surface marker analyses revealed clear differences between the BALB-MC and the original MRL-MC3, which was positive for the expression of MHC class I antigens (K, D), I-E antigen and c-abl-encoded (anti-pEX-2 antibody-reactive) proteins, but not for I-A on the cell surface. In contrast, BALB-MC showed positive only for the MHC class I antigens (K, D) on the surface, and also positive for anti-pEX-2 antibody-reactive cytoplasmic proteins, as seen in MRL-MC3. Mast cells obtained from MRL-MC3-injected MRL/+ mice showed the same staining pattern as MRL-MC3. BALB-MC induced shorter survival times (approximately half) in both MRL/+ and BALB/c mice than MRL-MC3.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)