In vitro suppression of immunocompetent cells by lymphomas from aging mice.

We studied the effects of lymphomas in the spleens of aging (C57BL/6 X BALB/c)F1 (B6CF1) mice on the immunologic responsiveness of normal spleen cell cultures to sheep erythrocytes. The cultures were assayed for antibody-forming cells (AFC). Cultures of 20 times 10-6 normal spleen cells produced hundreds of AFC, whereas similar cultures of lymphomatous spleen cells produced less than ten AFC.