Lung carcinoma of sheep (Jaagsiekte). 111. lymph node, blood, and immunoglobulin

Pulmonary carcinoma syndrome of sheep, characterized by prosressive tumor-cell growth in the lungs and by metastatic involvement of various organs, also had consistent organ and blood effects. The lymph node architecture in diseased animals was destroyed to a varying extent, distinctive by a marked depletion of lymphocytes and germinocytes, by plasma cell hyperplasia with various intracellular inclusion bodies, and by reticulocytosis. Furthermore, an extreme hyperglobulinemia, characterized by increase in the β1- and total γ-globulins and in the amount of slow- moving lipoproteins, was found in sera of diseased sheep. Ultracentrifugal analysis and immunoelectrophoresis indicated that the hyperglobulinemia occurred mainly in the 7S-lgG fraction. A low percentage of lung tumor cells reacted positively with both normal and affected sera in the indirect immunofluorescent antibody test and less frequently when fluorescein isothiocyanate-tagged antisheep globulin antiserum was directly applied on the tumor cell. However, no line of precipitation occurred between the sheep sera and the tumor extract in the gel diffusion test. —Nat Cancer Inst 48: 487-507, 1972.