Heterogeneity of cell surface structures involved in cytotoxicity mediated by lymphokine activated killer cells.

: Lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells mediate the lysis of a variety of histologically distinct tumor targets. We investigated the nature and diversity of the structures involved in the recognition phenomenon by evaluating the effects of treating effector and target cells with trypsin and chymotrypsin, enzymes that disrupt surface protein molecules. Chymotrypsin and trypsin treatment of B16 target cells, a murine melanoma cell line, significantly abolished killing by LAK cells. Alternatively, neither of these treatments in P815 cells, a murine mastocytoma cell line, affected killing by LAK cells. Moreover, we found a differential effect of both these enzymes on YAC-1 cells, a murine leukemia cell line, with trypsin having a less inhibitory effect on cytolysis than chymotrypsin. The nature of the LAK cell receptor that presumably plays a role in binding target antigen was also investigated. Treatment of LAK cells with chymotrypsin significantly reduced lysis of the B16 and YAC-1 target cell types. However, trypsin treatment of the effectors only inhibited killing of the B16 tumor cell line. Cytotoxicity exerted against YAC-1 remained unaltered upon trypsinization of LAK cells. These cumulative results indicate heterogeneity of both the receptors on the LAK cells and the surface antigen molecules recognized on these targets. The use of YAC-1 as a target provided us with a tool to compare the LAK with the natural killer (NK) systems. The overall effect of proteolytic enzyme treatment in reducing cell lysis was more pronounced in the NK than in the LAK system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)