title: Immunological suppression of head and neck carcinoma by dendritic cell tumor fusion vaccine.
abstract: The successful treatment of cancer with dendritic cell (DC) tumor vaccine is highly dependent on the efficacy of antigen presentation and T cell activation. In the present study, a novel vaccine of DCs fused with autologous tumor cells was introduced, which had a marked ability to suppress head and neck carcinoma. DCs generated from the bone marrow of mice were fused with an autologous tumor cell line using polyethylene glycol (PEG). To observe the fused cells, confocal microscopy and FACS analysis were performed. Subsequently, the activation and proliferation of T cells, as well as animal experiments, were examined. The efficiency of DC/tumor fusion was 18.03% and T cells were well-activated by the hybrids. The volumes of tumors on the tumor-bearing mice were controlled, survival time of tumor-bearing mice was prolonged and the level of IFN-γ in serum was significantly increased compared with the control group and lysate-pulsed DC group. The results indicate that the DC/tumor fusion vaccine appears to be more effective than DCs pulsed with tumor lysate for the treatment of head and neck carcinoma, which may be useful in future clinical studies.
authors.affiliation: Center Laboratory of Stomatology, Stomatological Hospital Affiliated Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210008, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yongbin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mou
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Yanhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qingang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hu
keywords: cancer vaccine; cell fusion; dendritic cell; head and neck carcinoma