TUMOR-ASSOCIATED LYMPHOMONOCYTES (TALM) FROM NEOPLASTIC EFFUSIONS SECONDARY TO OVARIAN-CANCER ARE IMMUNOLOGICALLY DEFECTIVE BUT ARE ABLE TORELEASE CYTOKINES

We studied the most relevant functional activities of tumor-associated lymphomonocytes (TALM) and the levels of IL-1 alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-2, IL-6 and TNF alpha in neoplastic peritoneal effusions and in the seru m of patients with ovarian carcinoma. Comparisons were made with autol ogous peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and, moreover, autolog ous PBMC were compared with PBMC or purified peripheral T lymphocytes (PBL-T) from normal subjects. TALM were collected from 20 peritoneal n eoplastic effusions secondary to ovarian cancer. Our results showed th at the CD3-zeta chain was undetectable in TALM, TAL-T and PBMC of pati ents whereas it was strongly expressed in PBL-T from normal subjects. In contrast, the CD3-epsilon chain was always detectable both in patie nt and in normal cells. The basal pattern of proteins phosphorylated o n tyrosine in TALM or TAL-T was reduced and altered in comparison to t hat of PBL-T from normal subjects. Moreover, after stimulation of the cells with anti-CD3 mAb, significantly different patterns of phosphory lation on tyrosine were observed in TAL-T as compared to PBL-T. The ex pression of p56(lck) in TALM, TAL-T and PBMC from patients was reduced in comparison to PBMC and PBL-T from normal subjects. No significant differences were found in the expression of either IL-2R subunits afte r PHA or anti-CD3 mAb stimulation between TALM and autologous PBMC whe reas in both populations it was lower than that of control PBMC. After PHA stimulation, the levels of IL-1 alpha, IL-1 beta and TNF alpha in culture media of TALM were lower than those of autologous PBMC wherea s IL-2 and IL-6 levels were significantly higher. The cytokine product ion from patient PBMC was always lower than that of control PBMC. The levels of IL-2, IL-6 and TNF alpha in neoplastic effusions were signif icantly higher than those in autologous serum. The levels of all cytok ines were. higher in patient than in control sera.