Evidence of cytotoxic T and B immunoblasts in the thoracic duct of rats bearing tumour grafts.

Wistar rats were immunised with allogeneic or xenogeneic tumour before collection of their thoracic duct lymph. Specifically cytotoxic effector cells were found in the lymph between 3 and 8 days after immunisation, and their occurrence coincided with an increased number of immunoblasts in the lymphocyte population. The immune response in lymph to allogeneic cells appeared to be affected solely by radiosensitive thymus-dependent lymphocytes; no complement-dependent killing was evident and cytotoxic cells failed to appear when immunised animals were deprived of thymus-dependent lymphocytes. In contrast, the response to immunisation with xenogeneic cells elicited both complement-dependent and complement-independent cytotoxicity, but only the former could be detected in animals deprived of thymus-dependent lymphocytes. In normal animals and in animals deprived of thymus-dependent cells, the cytotoxic cells in the thoracic duct lymph appeared to be large lymphocytes or immunoblasts.