Objective: To investigate the influence of mIL-7 on the immune response induced by vaccine of bcr-abl fusion gene fragment in mouse.
Methods: BALB/c mice were immunized by i. m. injection of pVbcr-abl/mIL-7 and pVbcr-abl, respectively. The specific antibody to p210bcr-abl protein was assayed by ELISA. The CTL activity of spleen cells from the immunized mice was assessed with LDH release test.
Results: The pVbcr-abl/mIL-7 and pVbcr-abl-immunized BALB/c mice elicited higher specific antibodies to p210bcr-abl protein. The specific antibody level of former group was higher than that in latter group, but the difference was statistically not significant. The spleen cells from the immunized mice showed more effective CTL activity than that from control group. The cytotoxic activity of spleen CTLs induced by pVbcr-abl/mIL-7 immunized mice exceeded that of pVbcr-ab-immunized mice.
Conclusion: The mIL-7 may influence the growth and differentiation of T cells, promote some T cells migrating into tumor tissue and up-regulate the specific cellular immune response. The results of this study provided an useful experimental basis for preclinical research on gene vaccine for chronic myeloid leukemia.