Demonstration of nonspecific suppressor cells in the peripheral lymphocytes of cancer patients.

The response to phytohemagglutinin of peripheral blood lymphocytes was studied in 169 cancer patients. There was a significant decrease compared with control groups (normal persons and those with benign disease). By selecting cancer leukocyte samples with reactivity to phytohemagglutinin that was increased by carrageenan, a macrophage-toxic agent, and by mixing them with normal lymphocytes, we have demonstrated that the depressed phytohemagglutinin of six cancer patients' lymphoyctes was due to the presence of suppressor cells that possibly were monocytes.

Determination of levels of carcinoembryonic antigen and nonspecific cross-reacting antigen in the sera of neonatal infants: brief communication.

Seventy-eight sera from neonatal infants, born at full term or prematurely, were studied for their carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and nonspecific cross-reacting antigen (NCA) concentrations, which were compared to the normal adult concentrations. The levels of CEA in the sera were significantly higher in newborns than in adults: 9.05 ng CEA/ml in newborns as compared to 2.

Is non-specific cross-reacting antigen a marker on the surface of human basophils?

Leucocytes challenged with anti-NCA serum (non-specific cross-reacting antigen) can release histamine. This release is Ca++, glucose and temperature dependent as usually described for basophils. Only half of the subjects whose basophils can release histamine when challenged with anti-IgE serum are also able to release histamine with anti-NCA serum.

Antigens common to human ovarian mucinous cyst fluid and gastric mucosa.

Ovarian mucinous cysts, but not ovarian cysts of other histological types, contain common antigens with normal gastric mucosa. By immunodiffusion, antigens of both extracts give identical reactions. Immunofluorescence experiments localize these antigens in the epithelial coat of ovarian mucinous cysts and in the mucous cells of the surface epithelium of the fundic and pyloric gastric mucosa.

Use of a permanent cell line extracts to study the tumor associated immune reactions in colorectal cancer patients by leucocyte migration inhibition test.

Crude extracts of colorectal surgical tumors, either individual or pooled, and HT29 line cells were compared in leucocyte migration inhibition test. HT29 cell extract gave more positive reactions with leucocytes of colorectal cancer patients than the other ones, and less with control leucocytes. It was thus used for all the subsequent experiments.

A comparative study of the localization of CEA and NCA2 in cancerous and normal gastrointestinal tissues.

The histological localization of CEA in gastrointestinal tissues was re-evaluated after absorption of anti-CEA antiserum with NCA2, another normal antigen cross-reacting with CEA. This absorbed antiserum showed clearly the presence of CEA in colonic tumors and some non-cancerous colonic mucosae, obtained even from non-cancerous patients. In contrast, some of the gastric adenocarcinomas we studied were strained very weakly by absorbed anti-CEA antiserum, although non-absorbed antiserum (or serum absorbed with NCA alone) labelled them strongly.

[Immunological demonstration of large quantities of glycogen or of a glycogen-like substance in human embryonic colon cells and in colon carcinomas by means of rabbit antisera raised against a strain of Escherichia coli 013].

Rabbit antisera raised against a strain of E. coli 013, with a strong antiglycogen activity, were tested on human fetal and normal adult colons, on colon carcinomas, and on colon tumor cells in culture (HT29). Only very rare granules were present in adult normal colons when tested with the immunofluorescence method.

[Tumour antigens inducing immune reactions].

Antigens of viral tumours are the same for all the tumours due to the same virus. Antibodies in tumours bearing animals allow to detect antigens in nucleus, in cytoplasm and on the cell membrane which carries also embryonic antigens and the antigen responsible for tumour rejection by sensitized lymphcytes (TSTA or TATA). Is this antigen identical to the surface antigen shown by antibodies? Purification of membrane antigens will answer this important question.

[Comparative study of the resistance of CEA and NCA to acid proteases].

The non-specific cross reacting antigen (NCA), characterized by its cross reaction with the carcinoembryonic antigen of the digestive system (CEA), is present in human polymorphonuclears and macrophages. We showed that this antigen is not damaged by endocellular acid proteases (cathepsine D and E), nor by pepsin: there is no change in the molecular weight, the electrophoretic mobility and the immunochemical reactivity of the enzyme treated NCA. These data make likely the hypothesis of NCA playing a role in the protection of polymorphonuclears and macrophages against their own proteases.

Immunochemical study and cellular localization of human pepsinogens during ontogenesis and in gastric cancers.

Gastric pepsinogens were studied by immunoenzymologic and immunohistochemical methods in non-cancerous adult gastric mucosa, in fetal stomach, and in gastric carcinomas. In noncancerous adult mucosa, immunoenzymologic methods showed that pepsinogen II (previously called Pg I-II) was found mostly in fundic or mediogastric extracts, whereas Pg IV was predominant in antropyloric extracts. Pg II was localized by immunofluorescence techniques in the chief cells of deep glands found near the muscularis.

An optical and ultrastructural study of the localization of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in normal and cancerous human rectocolonic mucosa.

An immunoenzymologic method using peroxidase-labeled antibodies has been applied for the localization of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) on frozen sections, on Araldite-embedded sections, and on isolated cell preparations of normal rectocolonic mucosa and of rectal and colonic cancers (adenocarcinomas and one villous tumor). CEA appears as a component intimately associated with the external coating of the striated border of the normal columnar cell and with the external coating of the apical pole of the cancerous cell. CEA is also found as an intracellular component of the normal epithelial cell of the rectocolonic mucosa, mainly the goblet cell.

[Immunologic research on human colonic cancer].

Immunological studies on human colonic tumors were oriented in two ways according to their methodology: immunochemistry or cellular immunology methods. Immunochemical studies allowed to characterized several tumor associated antigens although no one was proved as cancer specific. The most famous of these antigens is no doubt the carcinoembryonic antigen of the digestive system or shortly CEA.

Immunohistology of the antigenic pattern of a continuous cell line from a human colon tumor.

The antigenic surface pattern of a continuous cell line (HT29) derived from a human primary carcinoma of the colon was studied by the immunofluorescence technique. Monovalent and polyvalent immune sera were used. The cells of this long-term culture kept the ability to synthesize the three principal colon tumor antigens: carcinoembryonic and nonspecific cross-reacting antigens, and the membrane-associated tissular autoantigen.

Study of the antigenic cross reactivity between carcinoembryonic antigen and "nonspecific cross reacting antigens" (NCA and NCA 2).

The immunochemical relationship between CEA, NCA and NCA 2 was studied in guinea-pigs. Strong cross reactions were found between these antigens, either in delayed or anaphylactic reactions. Some specific determinants for each antigen could still be demonstrated.