Search for tumor-specific immune reactions in Burkitt lymphoma patients by the membrane immunofluorescence reaction.

Abstract

The sera of Burkitt patients in various phases of the disease, untreated and treated by chemotherapy, were tested against allogeneic and autochthonous Burkitt lymphoma cells derived from fresh biopsy material Normal lymph node cells or leukemic cells of Swedish patients were used as controls. Further controls included the erythrocytes of the Burkitt lymphoma donor patients themselves and, in a few cases, their normal bone marrow cells. The sera were tested by the indirect membrane immunofluorescence reaction against living cells. This method was suitable for the demonstration of transplantation antigens or tumor-specific antigens on lymphoma cells. The sera of patients gave a high incidence of positive reactions against Burkitt cells; other sera were less frequently positive and still others were negative. The Burkitt positive sera showed no reactivity against the non-Burkitt cells tested. A highly significant correlation was found between the durbility of the response to chemotherapy and the frequency of positive immunofluorescence tests against Burkitt target cells. In 3 cases, when the responsiveness of the patient to chemotherapy changed in the course of the disease, there seemed to be a parallel change in serum reactivity. The tumor-specific nature is suggested by the similar frequency of positive reactions obtained with autochthonous and allogeneic Burkitt cells in 5 of 6 cases where such a comparison was possible; by the tendency of positive sera to react with all or most Burkitt cells tested, taken from 5 to 9 patients in most cases; by the absence of reactivity against allogeneic non-Bur kitt cells; by the absence of any relationship between erythrocyte agglutination and Immunofluorescence and Burkitt cell fluorescence in cases where both were derived from the same donor; and by the absence of reactivity against normal bone marrow cells from the Burkitt cell donor upon testing against the same, Burkitt positive sera. Twelve sera of healthy Swedish blood donors gave negative results when tested against Burkitt target cells. A small number of positive reactions were obtained in each of the following serum donor categories hospitalized African patients with nonmallgnant diseases, hospitalized African patients with malignant diseases other than Burkitt''s lymphoma, and healthy blood relatives of the Burkitt patients.