On the Nature of Transplantation

During the course of experimental viral oncogenesis, a number of tumor cell components have been found to elicit antibody responses in the host animal, thus being recognised as foreign. These antigenic materials have been shown to be specific for each particular oncogenic virus, even when a particular virus is known to transform cells of different species. A variety of antigens may be detected in tumors produced by the DNA viruses of cubic symmetry: a) complete infectious virus particles produced in polyoma mouse tumors (1), rabbit papillomata (2), and in small quantities in primary SV40 hamster tumors (3); b) structural virion subunits produced in hamster tumors induced by adenovirus types 12, 18, and 31 (4, 5); c) nonstructural "T" or "neoantigens", probably coded by the viral genomes, which also appear dm-ing early phases of the lyric cycle, and are found in the adenovirus (5, 6), SV40 (6, 7), and polyoma systems (8); and d) nonstructural cellular surface antigens, possibly coded by the viral genome, normally stimulating primarily a cellular antibody response, and appearing in the polyoma (9, 10), SV40 (11, 12, 13), and adenovirus tumor systems (14, 15). Although the relationship between these classes of antigens and their possible role in oncogenesis has been studied in a number of previous investigations (15, 16, 17), many points have yet to be resolved. Among these are the circumstances under which the host-antibody response can be deviated to respond predominantly to any particular class of antigen, the precise nature of the nonstructural antigens, and the possible influence of antibody response to each class of antigen upon response to other classes of antigens and resistance to tumor growth. Although the adenovirus tumor system has been most extensively studied from the standpoint of the humoral antibody response to the structural virion and T antigens (4, 5, 18, 19), there has been relatively little work reported on the transplantation antigen(s) (14, 15). More information on the latter would complement the studies on virion and T antigens, the extensive investigations