PMID: 2112981Jul 1, 1990Paper

Major histocompatibility complex class I and unique antigen expression by murine tumors that escaped from CD8+ T-cell-dependent surveillance

Cancer Research
P L WardH Schreiber

Abstract

The rejection of murine UV-induced skin cancers by normal mice is a striking example of powerful immune surveillance of the normal host against malignant cells. In this study, we show that UV-induced regressor tumors regularly grew progressively and killed mice that were depleted of CD8+ T-cells. Depletion of CD4+ T-cells had no effect, suggesting that CD8+ but not CD4+ T-cells were required for this immune surveillance. To determine whether change in major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I expression was a frequent event that caused low immunogenicity of tumors or facilitated escape from immune destruction, recently isolated murine tumors of varying degrees of immunogenicity, including highly immunogenic UV-induced regressor, less immunogenic UV-induced progressor, and poorly immunogenic spontaneous progressor tumors, were compared. There was no correlation between the ability of a tumor to grow progressively in a normal immunocompetent host and the level of constitutive class I expression or the level of expression induced in vitro by gamma interferon. (Only 1 of more than 20 progressor tumors analyzed showed complete loss of a MHC class I molecule.) Some progressor variants showed loss of a unique tumor-specific cytot...Continue Reading

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