Role of Splenomegaly in Tumour-bearing Mice

Abstract

MANY attempts have been made to explain the presence of splenomegaly in tumour-bearing mice. Early work by Andreini¹ et al., in mice bearing homografted tumours, demonstrated splenomegaly which was interpreted as evidence of immunological activity against the tumour. When splenomegaly was found in the isologous situation the interpretation was made again² that this was a sign of a response of the mouse to a cancer-specific antigen in the tumour and this antigen might be lost on transplantation. Stuart and El Hassan³ have recently shown the protective effect of isologous spleen cells from tumour-bearing mice with splenomegaly, injected locally with the Landschütz ascites tumour. In the experiments reported here I have attempted to demonstrate the protective influence of the splenomegaly by transferring spleen cell suspensions from tumour-bearing mice to isologous mice challenged with the same tumour.