Testing the theory of immune selection in cancers that break the rules of transplantation.
Modification of cancer cells likely to reduce their immunogenicity, including loss or down-regulation of MHC molecules, is now well documented and has become the main support for the concept of immune surveillance. The evidence that these modifications, in fact, result from selection by the immune system is less clear, since the possibility that they may result from reorganized metabolism associated with proliferation or from cell de-differentiation remains. Here, we (a) survey old and new transplantation experiments that test the possibility of selection and (b) survey how transmissible tumours of dogs and Tasmanian devils provide naturally evolved tests of immune surveillance.
Fassati
Ariberto
A
MRC Centre for Medical Molecular Virology, University College London, UK. a.fassati@ucl.ac.uk
Mitchison
N Avrion
NA
D000818:Animals; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007157:Immunologic Surveillance; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D019139:Tumor Escape
D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens