Fig. 5
Induction of tolerogenic TIDCs in RIG-I-deficient HCC tumors in vivo. a RIG-I-deficient or reference tumorsphere cells of SMMC-7721 or Bel-7402 cell lines (2 × 106) were injected into armpits of BALB/c nude mice. The tumor volume was calculated weekly from the lengths of major and minor axes of the tumors. b − d At 28 days after tumor inoculation, TIDCs and splenic DCs of normal BALB/c mice were isolated and purified using CD11c microbeads. MHCII and CD86 expression on those TIDCs and splenic DCs was assessed by flow cytometry. TIDCs with fluorescence intensity higher than the level of the dotted line in (b) are regarded as positive populations. e The level of TGF-β1 in tumor lysates was determined by ELISA. f Irradiated TIDCs or irradiated normal mice splenic DCs were co-cultured with allogenic CD3+ T cells from C57 BL/6 mice for 72 h, and the proliferation of T cells was determined by measuring [3H] thymidine uptake during the next 16 h of culture. g The levels of TGF-β1 and IFN-γ in co-culture supernatants were analyzed by ELISA. The values are presented as means ± SD (n = 12 for a and n = 6 for b-g). *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01