Antitumor immunotherapeutic effect of immunization with fusion of dendritic cells and hepatocellular carcinoma cells in mice

2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 14570443
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Gastroenterology
• Research Institution: Yamagata University
• Principal Investigator: SATO Koji Yamagata University, School of Medicine, Assistant professor, 医学部, 講師 (90250919)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KAWATA Sumio Yamagata University, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (90183285)
• Project Period (FY): 2002 – 2003
• Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma / Pervention / Cancer vaccine / Dendritic cell / Immunotherapy

Research Abstract

The long-term prognosis after treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poor because of high rate of tumor recurrence. Immunotherapy for cancer is attractive. Uncharacterized and mutated antigens can be targeted with whole tumor cell or tumor lysate-based immunization strategies.
Our study was to investigate the antitumor effects of immunization with fusions of dendritic cells (DCs) and HCC cells against HCC tumors transplanted to mice.
Fusion cells of DCs and tumor cells were prepaired with polyethylene glycol. To study the antitumor immune effects, fusions were subcutaneously injected into mice. The CTL activity was assumed by the LDH method. Mice were followed for survival and tumor size.
Immunization of mice with fusions induced protective immunity against tumor challenge. Tumor antigen-pulsed DCs effectively suppressed the growth of HCC in mice. After treatment with fusions, tumor size decreased and the survival time of tumor-bearing mice was extended.
Our study demonstrated that the fusion cells of DCs and tumor cells could induce effective antitumor immune responses and may be used in HCC treatment and prevention of recurrence of HCC.