title: Impaired cytotoxic T lymphocyte inductivity by dendritic cells derived from patients with hepatitis C virus-positive hepatocellular carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Peptide-based therapeutic vaccines are being developed. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of immunotherapy to hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by assessing the inductivity of peptide-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) by dendritic cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  The inductivity of CTL was characterized in six patients with HCV-positive HCC, and compared to seven healthy volunteers and six patients with chronic HCV hepatitis (control).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Peptide-specific CTL was comparably induced in controls, but not induced in any patients with HCC. To characterize this, the cytokine profile and the expression of surface molecules interacting between dendritic and T cells were evaluated. Among the cytokines, production of interferon (IFN)-gamma was found to be impaired and closely related to the results of CTL assays, while the expression of surface molecules showed no significant changes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In HCV-positive HCC patients, CTL inductivity by dendritic cells is impaired. This may be related to the impaired production of IFN-gamma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Social Insurance Chukyo Hospital, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohno
authors.forename: Noboru
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hirashima
authors.forename: Etsuro
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Orito
authors.forename: Izumi
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Kei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: Kiyoaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozasa
authors.forename: Noboru
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shinkai
authors.forename: Yasuhito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Takanobu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Ryuzo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakakibara