= E. A. Carswell
{c}
E. A. Carswell is the first-listed author of a 1975 paper describing a host-derived serum activity named <tumor necrosis factor>. The researchers investigated <necrosis> in transplanted tumors and distinguished the serum factor's activity from that of residual <endotoxin>. This supported an indirect route in which a host response could mediate an effect initially associated with the stimulating material.<An endotoxin-induced serum factor that causes necrosis of tumors by E. A. Carswell and others>[Abstract, PNAS 72 (1975), pp. 3666–3670; DOI 10.1073/pnas.72.9.3666.]{ref}
The paper also compared responses in cultured <cells>: the tested neoplastic cell lines and mouse embryo cultures differed in susceptibility. This is an illuminating experimental distinction between observing a biological effect and identifying its range. It did not establish that every tumor responds, that every other <cell> is unaffected, or that a therapeutic application follows automatically. A <macrophage> origin was proposed as an interpretation, rather than directly identified by these experiments.<An endotoxin-induced serum factor that causes necrosis of tumors by E. A. Carswell and others>[Abstract: residual-endotoxin tests, cultured-cell comparison and proposed macrophage interpretation.]{ref}
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