Growth of Mouse Tumour in the Chick Embryo with Retention of Capacity by the Chick to form Antibody to the Tumour Cells in Later Life

The Role of a Natural Antibody in the Rejection of Mouse Tumor Cells by the Chick Embryo

“…The survival of the tumor may simply be due to the fact that the normal rate of antibody production is not sufficient to kill the large number of cells in the already established tumor. While the tumor is present, antibodies may not be found in the circulation, but once the tumor is eliminated it has been shown that the birds become some weeks later, quite normal in their ability to make antibody to the tumor cells (1).…”

“…There are only two possibilities: (a) it may be synthesized by the embryo itself, in which case it would remain to be explained how agglutinins to mouse ceils could be formed in the absence of mouse antigens; (b) it may be transferred from the serum of the materual hen to the yolk of the egg and absorbed intact into the embryonic serum. Since the adult hen is known to contain natural antibodies to mouse cells (1,22), these antibodies would be included in the transferred gamma globulin.…”

“…When a suspension of the tumor cells was incubated in vitro for a few hours in the serum of normal adult chickens, there was considerable loss of viability, as indicated either by complete inability of the tumor cells to produce ascites in the indicator mice, or delay in the onset of the ascites. Since agglutinins for mouse cells (including the ascites tumor) begin to be detectable in the blood of normal chickens after they are a few weeks old (22,1), it appeared that the loss of tumor viability may have been due to the action of a natural antibody. However, it was found that even the serum or plasma of young chicks in which no agglutinins for the tumor cells could be demonstrated, reduced the viability of a suspension of the tumor cells3 Table I except that incubation was for 7 hours at 37 °.…”

“…When cells of the Krebs ascites tumor of mice are injected intravenously into 10 day chick embryos, the tumor cells regularly invade the internal organs of the embryo, where they grow as multiple tumor islands (1), as do certain other heterologous tumors (17).…”

Experimental Skin Grafts and Transplantation Immunity

“…It is recognized that the chick embryo is capable of developing defensive mechanisms that result in the rejection of normal tissue and tumor transplants (Murphy 1914a, b;Green and Lorincz 1956). There is limited but convincing experimental evidence that the immune resistance of the chick embryo to foreign skin often appears immediately prior to, or coincidentally with, the degeneration of the chorioallantoic vasculature.…”