Spontaneous cytotoxicity by monocyte-enriched subpopulations of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells against human or mouse anchorage-dependent tumour cell lines. Contribution of NK-like cells

Lactoferrin-inducible monocyte cytotoxicity for K562 cells and decay of natural killer lymphocyte cytotoxicity

Monocyte-enriched and lymphocyte-enriched fractions of peripheral blood from three healthy volunteers were obtained by percoll density gradient centrifugation. The cytotoxic activity of each fraction against 51Cr-labelled K562 cells was quantified in a 2-h assay using freshly isolated cells of each fraction and cells of each fraction which had been incubated with and without lactoferrin in complete medium for 18 h before performing the assay. We have thereby shown that cytotoxicity was not demonstrable in the lymphocyte fraction (containing 7.3 +/- 2% large granular lymphocytes) after 18 h in medium, whereas the cytotoxicity of the monocyte fraction (containing 3 +/- 0.4% large granular lymphocytes) was still significantly increased (P less than or equal to 0.01) and that lactoferrin had no effect on lymphocyte fraction cytotoxicity while producing an 11-fold increase in the cytotoxicity of the monocyte fraction. It is therefore possible to perform a relatively simple test of monocyte cytotoxicity using lactoferrin as a stimulant in a 2-h 51Cr-labelled K562 assay system by allowing 18 h to elapse for lymphocyte natural killer cytotoxicity to decay.

Study of cytotoxicity against adenovirally transformed cells in patients with tumours of the urinary tract

Peripheral mononuclear cells of patients with tumours of the prostate and bladder and with papilloma of the bladder were studied for cytotoxicity against adenovirally transformed cell lines. The cytotoxicity of patients with carcinoma of the prostate or bladder revealed no significant changes compared with the control values. Patients with bladder papilloma having received immunostimulant therapy with levamisole over a year showed a significant rise of their cytotoxicity figures in the second 6-month period of study.

Evaluation of the interaction of mononuclear phagocytes with ovarian carcinoma cells in a colony assay

The effect of human peripheral blood monocytes on the SW626 ovarian carcinoma line was investigated in a colony assay in agar, Percoll-enriched monocytes inhibited colony formation by SW626 carcinoma cells at effector-to-target cell (E:T) ratios as low as 0.3:1. In contrast the same effectors had little cytolytic effect in a 48 h thymidine-release assay at E:T ratios as high as 40:1. Monocyte-depleted nonadherent cells had little inhibitory capacity on SW626 colony formation, whereas unseparated mononuclear cells were intermediate between Percoll-enriched monocytes and lymphoid cells. Sorting of cells positive for the monoclonal antibody marker MO2 confirmed the monocytic nature of cells which inhibited colony formation. Ovarian carcinoma cells freshly isolated from 9 patients were heterogenous in their susceptibility to colony inhibition by mononuclear phagocytes. Cells from 4 patients were not inhibited by effector cells and in one subject promotion of colony formation by mononuclear phagocytes was observed. With 4 cell preparations inhibition of colony formation was found as with the SW626 line. Colony assays may provide a useful methodological approach, particularly when effector cells mediate low levels of killing, of doubtful biological significance, in conventional isotope release assays, or when growth promotion is to be evaluated.

Cytolytic activity of interferon-gamma and its synergism with 5-fluorouracil

Highly purified natural or recombinant human immune interferon (IFN-gamma) was found to be directly cytolytic to certain tumor cell lines in vitro. Out of 5 human tumor cell lines and one normal fibroblast line tested, the colon adenocarcinoma line HT-29 and the rhabdomyosarcoma line A673 were highly sensitive to cytolysis by interferon, as determined by 125I-iododeoxyuridine release in a 72 h microcytotoxicity assay. Cytolysis was marked at IFN-gamma concentrations of less than I U/ml, and it reached a near-maximal level at 6.4 U/ml. A synergistic cytolysis on HT-29 cells of IFN-gamma and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was observed at 5-FU concentrations ranging from 64 to 640 micrograms/ml. In contrast, no synergism was observed between IFN-gamma and mitomycin C. The direct cytolytic activity and synergistic cytolysis with 5-FU of the IFN-gamma preparations used in the present study were abolished completely by treatment with a neutralizing monoclonal antibody specific for human IFN-gamma.