Interleukin-12 gene modification exerts anti-tumor effects on murine mammary sarcoma cell line in vivo

The aim of this project was to investigate the anti-tumor effect of an IL-12 gene modified mammary sarcoma murine cell line, EMT6/IL-12, in mouse model. In this study, we transfected the recombinant eukaryotic plasmid encoding IL-12 gene (pcDNA6-p70) into EMT6 and obtained the IL-12 expressing EMT6/IL-12 cell line. Then EMT6/IL-12 cells were s.c. inoculated into mice. The recombinant vector treatment group was set as control. We then evaluated the inhibition of tumor growth and the anti-tumor immunity function in vivo such as cytotoxicity, proliferation of splenocytes and serial IFN-gamma level. And the percentage of IFN-gamma producing CD4 or CD8 T cells among splenocytes was also analyzed in tumor bearing mice. Our results showed that the growth of tumors was obviously inhibited in EMT6/IL-12 group. Moreover, the capacities of anti-tumor immunity were all significantly higher in EMT6/IL-12 group compared to the controls. The results of the present investigation support the notion that EMT6/IL-12 could exert gene therapy in tumor model by improving the anti-tumor cellular immunity.