title: Effect of bacille Calmette-Guérin on the immune response of BALB/c mice to a tumor allograft.
abstract: The effect of dosage and route of inoculation of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) on immune response to allogeneic tumor cells was investigated. BALB/c mice were tested 14 and 21 days after injection of EL-4 lymphoma for spleen-cell cytotoxicity against EL-4 cells in vitro and for complement-dependent, antibody-mediated lysis of tumor cells. BCG treatment had no measurable effect on the antibody-mediated lysis of tumor cells, but spleen-cell cytotoxicity was significantly increased in mice treated with 10(4) or 10(8) BCG by the intraperitoneal route; no such increase occurred when BCG was given by the oral or subcutaneous routes. The cytotoxic effector cells were primarily thymus-derived, since treatment of spleens with rabbit antiserum to mouse brain serum decreased cytotoxicity titers by approximately 90%. Within the framework of these experiments, the intraperitoneal route of BCG inoculation resulted in a more effective immune stimulation than the oral or subcutaneous routes.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology; D000920:Antibody-Dependent Cell Cytotoxicity; D001500:BCG Vaccine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D004306:Dose-Response Relationship, Immunologic; D005260:Female; D006082:Graft Enhancement, Immunologic; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology; D012515:Mast-Cell Sarcoma / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C / Q000276:immunology; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000276:immunology*; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm; D001500:BCG Vaccine