Heat-shocked tumor cell lysate-pulsed dendritic cells induce effective anti-tumor immune response in vivo

AIM: To study whether heat-shocked tumor cells could enhance the effect of tumor cell lysate-pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) in evoking anti-tumor immune response in vivo.

METHODS: Mouse undifferentiated colon cancer cells (CT-26) were heated at 42 °C for 1 h and then frozen-thawed. The bone marrow-derived DCs pulsed with heat-shocked CT-26 cell lysate (HSCT-26 DCs) were recruited to immunize syngeneic naïve BALB/c mice. The cytotoxic activity of tumor specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in mouse spleen was evaluated by IFN-enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) and LDH release assay. The immunoprophylactic effects induced by HSCT-26 DCs in mouse colon cancer model were compared to those induced by single CT-26 cell lysate-pulsed DCs (CT-26 DCs) on tumor volume, peritoneal metastasis and survival time of the mice.

RESULTS: Heat-treated CT-26 cells showed a higher hsp70 protein expression. Heat-shocked CT-26 cell lysate pulsing elevated the co-stimulatory and MHC-II molecule expression of bone marrow-derived DCs as well as interleukin-12 p70 secretion. The IFN-γ secreting CTLs induced by HSCT-26 DCs were significantly more than those induced by CT-26 DCs (P = 0.002). The former CTLs’ specific cytotoxic activity was higher than the latter CTLs’ at a serial E/T ratio of 10:1, 20:1, and 40:1. Mouse colon cancer model showed that the tumor volume of HSCT-26 DC vaccination group was smaller than that of CT-26 DC vaccination group on tumor volume though there was no statistical difference between them (24 mm³ vs 8 mm³, P = 0.480). The median survival time of mice immunized with HSCT-26 DCs was longer than that of those immunized with CT-26 DCs (57 d vs 43 d, P = 0.0384).

CONCLUSION: Heat-shocked tumor cell lysate-pulsed DCs can evoke anti-tumor immune response in vivo effectively and serve as a novel DC-based tumor vaccine.