Necrotic cells induce nonadherent peritoneal exudate cells to proliferate and differentiate into macrophage-like cells

Clinical Effects of CpG-Based Treatment on the Efficacy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Skewing Polarization Toward M1 Macrophage from M2

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to explore the clinical efficacy of CpG-based therapy for treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by skewing polarization toward M1 macrophage from M2.

METHODS

Pulmonary metastasis rate, overall survival time, and remission rate of 10 patients with HCC treated with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with CpG therapy and 10 age-, gender-, and TNM₀-matched patients treated with TACE (control group) were compared.

RESULTS

No pulmonary metastasis rate was 70% in the combined treatment group and 40% in the control group, respectively; and the differences between the two groups were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Median overall survival time was 22 months in the combined treatment group, compared with 6.65 months in the control group (p < 0.05). Remission rate in the combined treatment group (70%) was higher than in the control group (30%), but the differences between these two groups were not statistically significant (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Compared with TACE, CpG combined with TACE can decrease the pulmonary metastasis rate. This combined therapy can also improve the overall survival time of patients.

Specific cellular immune response elicited by the necrotic tumor cell-stimulated macrophages

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether the necrotic tumor cell-stimulated macrophages (NTCSM) could elicit specific immune response.

METHODS

Mice were immunized with the necrotic H22 tumor cell lysate-stimulated macrophages and the specific immune responses against the same tumor challenge were examined. The morphologic characteristics were observed with the transmission electron microscope and scanning electron microscopy. The expression of CD14, CD68, CD80 and CD86 were detected with the flow cytometer. The cytotoxicity and cytokine production of splenocytes were measured with the MTT assay and ELISA assay respectively.

RESULTS

Our research results reveal that NTCSMs are larger cells which generally generate spherical and elongated protrusions, folding membrane, and vesicles on their surface. Also, abundant lysosomes, secondary lysosomes, phagosomes, rough endoplasmic reticulum, and lipid bodies were found in their cytoplasm. The flow cytometry results show that the necrotic H22 tumor cell lysate could enhance the expression of CD14 and CD86 molecules and the NTCSM was characterized by the expression of CD14+/-CD68+CD80-CD86+. After the mice were vaccinated with NTCSMs, the tumor forming rate, tumor volume and weight of the NTCSM-vaccinated group were significantly lower than those of the sterile saline-injected group and untreated macrophage-vaccinated group (p<0.05). The cytotoxicity to H22 tumor cells of the splenocytes obtained from the NTCSM-immunized group was higher than that of the sterile saline-injected group and untreated macrophage-vaccinated group (p<0.05). Meanwhile, the levels of IL-2 and IFN-γ in the culture supernatant of the NTCSM-immunized group were higher significantly than those of the saline-injected group and untreated macrophage-vaccinated group. The level of IL-4 of the NTCSM-immunized group was significantly lower than those of the other two groups.

CONCLUSION

Our results indicated that NTCSMs could elicit specific cellular immune responses in vivo.