CORRELATION BETWEEN ULTRASTRUCTURAL AND HISTOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS IN LYMPHOKINE-ACTIVATED KILLER (LAK) CELLS REACTING WITH TARGET-CELLS IN-VITRO

Ultrastructural and fluorescence data allowed us to study the most imp ortant moments of the interaction between lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells against target cells (Chang) in vitro. The LAK cells, main tained at low doses of recombinant interleukin-2, were able to recogni ze, bind and destroy the tumoral cells. Before the attack, the LAK cel ls were characterized by a cytoplasm with a high ribosomes content; af ter the identification and the interaction cell-cell, a degeneration o f the tumoral cell was observed. These observations allowed us to supp ose that the interaction between the two types of cells may be mediate d by a receptoral membrane system without the action of lytic enzymes.