Background & objective: Dendritic cell (DC) is the strongest antigen presenting cell(APC). It can present antigen to T lymphocytes in vivo and in vitro,and induce cytotoxic T lymphocyte(CTL) reactions.This study was designed to investigate the killing activity of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) stimulated by dendritic cells on breast cancer cells in vitro.
Methods: DCs were isolated from peripheral blood of patients with breast cancer. DCs were stimulated by granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-4(IL-4), and tumor antigen. Then TILs were stimulated by DCs and their killing activity on autogenous breast cancer cells and Bcap-37 breast cancer cells in vitro were observed.
Results: TILs stimulated by DCs had very high killing activity on autogenous breast cancer cells and the killing rate was (85.76+/-2.93)%. The killing rate was higher obviously than that of TILs not stimulated by DCs and T lymphocytes stimulated by DCs or not on autogenous breast cancer cells, respectively [killing rates: (52.11+/-1.48)%, (51.35+/-1.46)%, and (3.59+/-0.25)%, respectively]. However, their killing activities on Bcap-37 breast cancer cells were lower [killing rates: (40.03+/-1.29)%, (22.09+/-0.87)%, (21.66+/-0.85)%, and (1.76+/-0.14)%, respectively].
Conclusion: The results indicate that DC from the patients with breast cancer can induce TIL to produce efficient and specific anti-breast cancer immune response.