Nonimmune and immune surveillance. II. Effect of recipient's age, tumor immunogenicity, and neonatal thymectomy on tumor growth inhibition.
After a suspension of tumor pieces was grafted into newborn and adult (CBA X C57BL/6J)F1 and BALB/c mice, the growth of Lewis lung adenocarcinoma and mammary gland adenocarcinoma was inhibited in newborn mice, whereas sarcoma of the rectum (SR-1-75) grew at the same rate in newborn and adult recipients. Neonatal thymectomy stimulated the growth of hepatoma (H-2-73) in newborns. The degree of tumor growth inhibition was age-dependent: The maximum inhibition was observed in 1- to 6-day-old recipients, but later it gradually decreased. The hepatoma (H-2-73) and ovarian carcinoma (OC-1-75) with inhibited growth in newborns and the tumor (SR-1-75) with uninhibited growth had equally low immunogenicity. The data suggested that newborns possess factors that inhibit tumor growth but these factors disappear with increased age of recipients.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection; D007109:Immunity; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000276:immunology*; D013934:Thymectomy; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000502:physiology*; D014185:Transplantation, Isogeneic