Experimental study of specific immunotherapy induced by H22 autologous tumor as whole tumor cell vaccine

Abstract This study explores the novel H22 whole-cell vaccine of active specific immunotherapy in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. H22 hepatoma tumor vaccine modified by human interleukin-2 (hIL-2) and mouse granulocyte-monocyte colony-stimulating factor (mGM-CSF) fusion gene was prepared to study its specific anti-tumor immunity. Mice were inoculated by these vaccines. Then tumor cells were injected into mouse models. The51 Cr release assay was used to examine the cytotoxicities of the splenocytes to H22 hepatoma cells in immunized mice, tumor-bearing mice and control mice. The blood was needed to test the level of IL-10 and interferon (IFN)-γ in serum. Survival time of mice was calculated. Specific cytotoxicity rate of splenocytes from the immunized mice to H22 cancer cell was 38%, significantly higher than 13.6% in the tumor-bearing group, 7.5% in the control group, and 9.1% in S180 cells ( p < 0.05). Serum IFN-γ in the immunized group was significantly increased compared with other groups ( p < 0.01), and serum IL-10 in the immunized group was significantly decreased compared with other groups( p < 0.01). The survival time of the transgenic vaccinated group was significantly longer.