Studies on the polyoma-virus-induced tumor-specific transplantation antigen (TSTA) - does middle or large T-antigen play a role?

Abstract

Mice and rats could be immunized against the polyoma‐virus‐induced tumor‐specific transplantation antigen (TSTA) by repeated inoculation of frozen or irradiated cells of an MT‐cDNA‐transformed rat cell line (2.8) that contains only the polyoma middle T‐antigen, or by cells that carried a host range mutant and expressed a full‐length large T‐antigen, but only non‐functional N‐terminal fragments of small and middle T. This shows that neither large T nor an intact middle T is necessary to elicit a polyoma tumor‐specific graft rejection response. Either one of them is sufficient by itself.