Monitoring abscopal responses to radiation in mice

Cytofluorometric characterization of the myeloid compartment of irradiated mouse tumors

The use of ionizing radiation (IR) is a cornerstone for the treatment of cancer and radiotherapy (RT) is used in roughly 50% of cancer patients. It is now well established that RT exerts widespread effects on the tumor stroma, including the immune environment. Together with its deeply characterized effects on the lymphoid compartment, RT also deeply affects the myeloid cell compartment. Fluorescence-activated flow cytometry is one of the most widely used technologies in immunology, allowing the multiparametric analysis of cells on a cell-by-cell basis. Here, we provide a detailed flow cytometry protocol to analyze the myeloid cell populations of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive TC1/Luc tumors engrafted in the oral mucosa of immunocompetent mice, and to evaluate their modulations in response to RT. The same method, with slight modifications, can be used to study the tumor myeloid cells from a variety of other mouse tumors.