Int J Med Sci 2013; 10(10):1314-1320. doi:10.7150/ijms.6538 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Institute of Oncology, Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Shandong University, 324 Jingwu Road, Jinan, 250021 P.R. China;
2. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University, Shandong University, 324 Jingwu Road, Jinan, 250021 P.R. China.
* contributed equally to this work.
Research in recent years has revealed that embryonic stem cells (ESCs) could generate obvious antitumor effects in both vitro and vivo. In vitro, ESCs could secrete soluble factors that are capable of blocking cancer cells proliferation, moreover, embryonic microenvironments could effectively inhibit tumorigenesis and metastasis; while in vivo, administration of ESCs in tumor-bearing mice could generate significant antitumor effects by indirectly activating the antitumor immune system. In this study, non-small cell lung cancer cells (Lewis Lung Carcinoma cells, LLCs) and ESCs were co-injected together into mice, after that subcutaneous tumor growth was monitored, cellular and humoral immune responses were detected, and different control groups were set to compare the results in different conditions. Our results suggested that compared to be injected alone, ESCs co-injected with cancer cells could inhibit cancer cell growth more efficiently in vivo, with more CD8+ lymphocytes generated in both peripheral circulation and spleen, and with higher serum anticancer cytokine level (interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon (IFN)-γ). We conclude that the boosted antitumor effects induced by ESCs and cancer cells co-injection may be both the effects of antitumor factors secreted by ESCs and immune responses induced by ESCs in vivo.
Keywords: embryonic stem cells, immunotherapy, antitumor immunity, antitumor factors.