Characterization and Purification of Rauscher Leukemia-Associated Transplantation Antigens

The antigenic changes which have been found in virtually every experimental tumor system studied, as well as many tumors studied in man, can be divided into two main groups. The first are quantitative changes in the density of normal histocompatibility antigens on malignant cells [4, 11, 18]. These changes have been found by antibody absorption studies as well as by light and electron microscope studies using antibodies labeled with appropriate markers. The other major change in antigenicity has been qualitative, that is to say, antigenic determinants have been found on tumor cells which are not present on cells of the non-tumor bearing isogenic host and to which the host is, in most cases, capable of responding immunologically [5, 13, 16].