Conformational changes in inter-α-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 4 activate its tumor-specific activity in mice with B16 melanoma.

It is known that blood serum proteins of tumor‑bearing mice display tumor‑specific activity. However, to date, the nature of this activity has remained elusive, and no tumor‑specific proteins have been detected in the blood serum of tumor‑bearing animals compared with those in healthy animals. The present study postulated and investigated the hypothesis that the observed tumor‑specific activity of the blood serum proteins is not associated with the appearance of novel serum proteins but with changes in the conformation of the existing ones.