Interference of inflammation caused by polyester with the development of Yoshida ascite hepatoma in rats. V. Study of cytotoxicity in vitro

: It has been known for some years that rats developing a granulomatous inflammation following the intraperitoneal injection of fragments of a polyester suture thread (Mersilene, M) reject a graft of 10(8) Yoshida's ascites hepatoma cells, which on the contrary rapidly grow in M-uninjected animals, originating an ascites tumor and killing the rats in a few days. In this paper granulomatous (TM) and normal (control, C) small pieces of peritoneum (omentum, mesentery and parietal) have been cultivated for 15 h in Eagle-Dul becco's medium together with 10(5) 51Cr-labelled hepatoma cells: the release of the label, an index of cell lysis, was considerably higher in the TM cultures, suggesting a cytotoxic activity of some components of the granulomas. Differences have been observed in the amount of radioisotope released among the TM cultures, suggesting that the particular composition of the cell population may be relevant to the cytotoxicity versus the hepatoma cells.