Acquisition by the murine host of responsiveness toward various neoplastic cell lines, but not toward self, through adoptive transfer of a helper T-lymphocyte clone with antiself specificity.

Self-antigens, when expressed on neoplastic cells, have been shown to exhibit a certain antigenicity. We attempted to apply this antigenicity to enhance antitumor immune responses. Cells from the syngeneic, CD4+, CD8-, helper T-lymphocyte clone TE2 were adoptively transferred to C57BL/6 mice. TE2 lymphocytes recognize a self-antigen on splenocytes that is expressed aberrantly on the neoplastic cell lines EL4/8, EL4/13, B16-BL6, and PG19, all of C57BL/6 origin. Their adoptive transfer led to the rejection by the host of the former neoplastic cells and of 3LL carcinoma cells, administered 2 months later; inocula 40 to 80 times the minimal lethal size were rejected and conveyed to the mice a 10-fold enhanced cytotoxic T-lymphocyte response. Despite the autoimmune responsiveness of the TE2 T-lymphocytes, no graft-versus-host reaction was apparent. This conclusion is based on the absence of a polyclonal B-lymphocyte stimulation in the host, the stable number of residual donor TE2 cells, and the general health of the recipient mice. Consequently, the autoimmune and tumor-responsive TE2 cells, transplanted into the immune environment of the host, exhibit a specificity that is restricted toward neoplastic cells.