The role of NK cells in tumor growth assessed by induction of their suppressor cells in Japanese quails.
In Japanese quails treated with chicken amniotic fluid (ChAmF) which had been previously shown to induce suppressor cells to natural killer (NK) cells, tumors appeared with shortened incubation periods after inoculation with Schmidt-Ruppin strain of Rous sarcoma virus (SR-RSV) compared with untreated quails. The tumors in ChAmF-treated quails subsequently grew in a similar pattern to those in untreated quails, whereas by challenging with a lower dose of the virus, enhanced tumor growth was observed as well as earlier onset of tumors in ChAmF-treated quails than in untreated ones. This enhancing effect on tumor growth due to suppression of NK-cell activity was transferred to normal quails with spleen cells obtained from ChAmF-treated quails, since RSV-induced tumors appeared earlier in the recipients of ChAmF-treated spleen cells than in those of untreated spleen cells. These findings show that suppression of NK-cell activity by ChAmF administration rendered quails higher susceptibility to tumor induction by SR-RSV challenge. In other words, NK-cell activity was strongly suggested to contribute to the early protection against tumor growth in the system of Rous sarcoma in Japanese quails.
D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000276:immunology; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D003370:Coturnix; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D001357:Sarcoma, Avian / Q000276:immunology*; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology*