Effect of dendritic cell vaccine against a tongue squamous cell cancer cell line (Tca8113) in vivo and in vitro

Dendritic cells (DCs), as primary antigen-presenting cells with the capacity to activate naïve T lymphocytes, are considered to be promising adjuvants for immunity against cancer. In this study, the effect of T lymphocyte-mediated immunity induced by a DC vaccine against Tca8113 cells in vivo and in vitro was evaluated. DCs were from human peripheral blood monocytes cultured in the presence of granulocyte–macrophage colony stimulating factor, interleukin 4 and/or tumour necrosis factor α, and stimulated with Tca8113 cell lysate prepared by the freeze–thaw method. The autologous T cells activated by these DCs were used in an in vitro MTT assay to detect their tumouricidal activity and investigated for their anti-tumour effect in vivo by administration to nude mice with implanted tumours (Tca8113). An adequate number of DCs were successfully generated from the monocytes. The T cells activated by the DC-based vaccine killed Tca8113 cells in vitro (P < 0.01), postponed tumour doubling time of the implanted tumours in nude mice (P < 0.01) and inhibited the growth of the tumours (P < 0.05). These results show that DCs from monocytes induce a lymphocyte-mediated immune response against tongue squamous carcinoma, and could be used as a vehicle for tumour antigens.