Studies on the terminal stages of antibody-complement-mediated killing of a tumor cell. I. Evidence for the existence of an intermediate, T.

The mechanism of the terminal steps in the lysis of antibody-sensitized tumor cells by complement (TAC) was studied. It was shown that once complement has reacted, lysis proceeded even in the absence of fluid-phase complement. Transformation of TAC to dead cells was found to be at least a two-step process: one of the steps was temperature dependent whereas the other was reversibly inhibited by EDTA. In analogy to the hemolytic system, TAC has been designated T.