The action of cytotoxic antisera on the HeLa strain of human carcinoma.

Tissue culture affords a method for the study of the direct effects of cytotoxins separated from the cellular defense, vascular reactions, clotting mech anism, and other mediators of resistance and homeostasis that exist in vivo. Lambert and Hanes in 1911 were the first to utilize this technic for such study (19). They reported that rat sarcoma would not grow in plasma coaguluni from guinea pigs im munized with rat sarcoma tissue. Since that time a number of observations have been made on the in vitro effects of cytotoxic antibodies. However, di vergent views remain on the specificity of antisera formed by heteroplastic transplantation, and cer thin observations have not been made on the na ture of the injury inflicted upon cells by antiserum. Foot (4) reported that rabbit antichicken bone marrow serum was organ-specffic, in that it af fected only the bone marrow of the chicken, and that these cytotoxins damaged bone marrow from other species as well. Verne and Oberling (34) claimed that rabbit antirat kidney serum damaged epithelium and fibroblasts of kidney in tissue cul ture but had no effect on such cells from other or gans of the rat. Lumsden and co-workers went even further in claiming specificity for antibodies formed in heterologous species (@4—@6). It was their conclusion that antiserum from rabbits, rats, and other mammals injected with mouse car cinoma was toxic to that neoplasm in vitro and not to other mouse tissues. In addition to being tissue specific, it was claimed that this antiserum was cancer-specific and would damage malignant but not normal cells from other species. Harris (9) demonstrated complete species specificity with antiserum prepared by injecting chick and mouse