Protective Antitumor Activity through Dendritic Cell Immunization is Mediated by NK Cell as Well as CTL Activation

  • Kim, Kwang-Dong (Korea Research Institut of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Kim, Jin-Koo (Korea Research Institut of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Kim, Se-Jin (Korea Research Institut of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Choe, In-Seong (Korea Research Institut of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Chung, Tae-Hwa (Korea Research Institut of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Choe, Yong-Kyung (Korea Research Institut of Bioscience and Biotechnology) ;
  • Lim, Jong-Seok (Korea Research Institut of Bioscience and Biotechnology)
  • Published : 1999.08.01

Abstract

Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent professional antigen-presenting cells (APC) capable of inducing the primary T cell response to antigen. Although tumor cells express target antigens, they are incapable of stimulating a tumor-specific immune response due to a defect in the costimulatory signal that is required for optimal activation of T cells. In this work, we describe a new approach using tumor-DC coculture to improve the antigen presenting capacity of tumor cells which does not require a source of tumor-associated antigen. Immunization of a weakly immunogenic and progressive tumor cocultured with none marrow-derived DCs generated an effective tumor vaccine. Immunization with the cocutured DCs was able to induce complete protectiv immunity against tumor challenges and was effective for the induction of tumor-specific CTL (cytotoxic T lymphocyte) activity. Furthermore, high NK cell activity was observed in mice in which tumors were rejected. In addition, immunization with tumor-pulsed DC s induced delayed tumor growth, but not tumor eradication in tumor-bearing mice. Our results demonstrate that coculture of DCs with tumors generated antitumor immunity due to the NK cell activation as well as tumor-specific T cell. This approach would be used for designing tumor vaccines using DCs when the information about tumor antigens is limited.

Keywords