Modulación de la diferenciación de células dendríticas por antígenos tumorales pulmonares

cancer is currently a very serious public health problem worldwide. dendritic cell (dc) based immunotherapy has been one of the most active research fields during the last 20 years. however, results of several studies, mainly involving tumor antigen pulsed autologous dcs, have not been as successful as expected. induction of a tolerant behavior of dcs upon the contact with tumor derived antigens is one of the hypotheses proposed since other effector cells like cd8+, cd4+ t lymphocytes and natural killers, would be rendered to a non-responsive state seriously impairing tumor growth control. in this work we found additional evidence about a likely dc differentiation defect caused by lung adenocarcinoma specific antigens freshly obtained from a patient, as suggested by the presence of the co-receptor cd14 on the surface of mature dcs (cd14 is a known marker for initial stages of dc differentiation). our results confirm that some aspects in tumor antigen treated dcs resemble their immature phenotype, largely less efficient presenting cells, and very weak immune response inducers. interestingly, tumor antigens obtained from the lung adenocarcinoma derived a549 cell line were unable to cause the same effect. this highlights the requirement for a complete characterization of the functional and phenotypic individual conditions when planning a dc based immunotherapy in order to have good success likelihood at cancer patient′s treatment.