| Popis: |
IN recent years, attention has been focused upon the immunological concept of the etiology of carcinogenesis. Burnet1 has developed the thesis that the control of cell multiplication may in part be mediated by ‘self-marker’ antigens present in all expendable cells, and he has pointed to the work of Weiler2 as strong support for Green's3 immunological hypothesis of carcinogenesis. By use of the fluorescent-antibody technique of Coons and Kaplan4, Weiler provided evidence to support his earlier observations5 that the organ-specific antigen is absent from tumour cells. While frank tumour cells failed to fluoresce in the presence of the organ-specific fluorescent antiserum, the failure of islands of morphologically normal but perhaps pre-malignant parenchymal cells to fluoresce is of greater etiological significance. |
