Gravimetric, histological and cytotoxic changes of lymphoreticular tissue after implantation of tumor cells in mice.

In inbred C3H/He male mice, gravimetric, histologic and cytotoxic changes in the lymphoreticular tissue after implantation of the tumor cells were studied. Gravimetric changes found in the thymus and the spleen suggest that the thymus plays an essential role until death in a tumor-bearing host and that the thymus and the spleen have inverse functions in relation to tumor growth. In this study, no association was found between the large pyroninophilic cells in the deep cortex of the lymph nodes and the cytotoxicity against the tumor cells. However, enlargement of the deep cortex of lymph nodes may be associated with cytotoxicity against these tumor cells.