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

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. The ⁵¹Cr 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.