Background
Dendritic cell (DC) therapy is a promising therapy for cancer-targeting treatments. Recently, DCs have been used for treatment of some cancers. We aimed to develop an in vitro assay to evaluate DC therapy in cancer treatment using a breast cancer model.
Conclusion
This study successfully used impedance-based cell analysis as a new in vitro assay to evaluate DC efficacy in cancer immunotherapy. We hope this technique will contribute to the development and improvement of immunotherapies in the near future.
Methods
DCs were induced from murine bone marrow mononuclear cells in Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 medium supplemented with GM-CSF (20 ng/mL) and IL-4 (20 ng/mL). Immature DCs were primed with breast cancer stem cell (BCSC)-derived antigens. BCSCs were sorted from 4T1 cell lines based on aldehyde dehydrogenase expression. A mixture of DCs and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) were used to evaluate the inhibitory effect of antigen-primed DCs on BCSCs. BCSC proliferation and doubling time were recorded based on impedance-based cell analysis using the xCELLigence system. The specification of inhibitory effects of DCs and CTLs was also evaluated using the same system.
Results
The results showed that impedance-based analysis of BCSCs reflected cytotoxicity and inhibitory effects of DCs and CTLs at 72 hours. Differences in ratios of DC:CTL changed the cytotoxicity of DCs and CTLs.