LM8 cells, derived from Dunn osteosarcoma, were obtained from the Japanese Collection of Research Bioresources Cell Bank (Osaka, Japan). The cells were cultured in complete medium consisting of RPMI-1640 (Lonza Group Ltd., Basel, Switzerland) supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA), 100 µg/ml streptomycin (Lonza Group Ltd.) and 100 U/ml penicillin (Lonza Group Ltd.). Cells were cultured at 37°C in an atmosphere of 5% CO₂.

Bone marrow-derived DCs were generated according to the protocol described by Inaba et al (16), with minor alterations incorporated. Briefly, erythrocyte-depleted mouse bone marrow cells were collected from flushed marrow cavities (1×10⁶ cells/ml) and were cultured in complete medium with 20 ng/ml recombinant mouse granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (R&D Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA) in 10-cm tissue culture dishes at 37°C in an atmosphere containing 50 ml CO₂/l. LM8 cells (6×10⁶) were lysed by rapidly freezing 3-day cultured LM8 cells in liquid nitrogen and thawing in a water bath at 37°C 3 times. The thawed LM8 cell lysate was added to the DC cultures on day 6 at a ratio of 1:5, and incubated at 37°C in an atmosphere containing 50 ml CO₂/l. Following 24 h of incubation, non-adherent cells were harvested by gentle pipetting. The cells were washed and resuspended in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for subcutaneous immunizations.

All experimental procedures involving animals were conducted under a protocol reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Tai'an City Central Hospital (Tai'an, China). All efforts were made to minimize the number of animals used and to ameliorate suffering. For in vivo studies, C3H mice were obtained from Sankyo Labo Service Corporation, Inc. (Toyama, Japan) and maintained in pathogen-free conditions. A total of 5×10⁶ LM8 cells were subcutaneously implanted into the gluteal region of 18 C3H mice (female; age, 6–8 weeks) for the development of tumors. Following the development of the tumors, two groups consisting of 9 mice each were immunized with 1×10⁶ DCs pulsed in LM8 cell lysate, or with polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly I:C, a Toll-like receptor 3 agonist that acts as a maturation stimulus)-matured DCs; the freshly prepared vaccine was diluted to the appropriate concentration and delivered intradermally with a needle in a total volume of 200 µl into the animal's groin, twice per week for 3 weeks.

The phenotype of immature and mature DCs (iDCs and mDCs) was studied using single-color fluorescence analysis. Cells (3×10⁵) were resuspended in 50 µl of buffer (PBS, 2% FBS, and 1% sodium azide) and incubated for 30 min at 4°C with 10 µl of the appropriate fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled monoclonal antibodies. The following primary FITC-tagged antibodies were used to characterize the cells: CD34 (#MCA1825GA; clone MEC14.7; mouse IgG1; dilution, 1:1,000), CD80 (#IMCA2462F; clone RM80; mouse IgG1; dilution, 1:1,000) from Beckman Coulter (Brea, CA, USA), CD83 (#MCA2747F; clone 3D11; mouse IgG1; dilution, 1:2,000) and CD86 (#553691; clone RMMP-2; mouse IgG1; dilution, 1:1,000) from AbD Serotec (Raleigh, NC, USA); CD205 (#130 102 906; clone NLDC 145; rat IgG2a anti-mouse; dilution, 1:1,000) from Miltenyi Biotec, Inc. (Singapore); and CD209 (#11-2092-80; clone LWC06; rat IgG2B anti-mouse; dilution, 1:1,000) from eBioscience, Inc. (San Diego, CA, USA). FITC-conjugated F(ab')2 goat anti-rat IgG (#IC108F; dilution, 1:1,000; R&D Systems, Inc.) was used as secondary antibody. Following incubation, the cells were washed twice and then were resuspended in 500 µl of BD Pharmingen™ Stain Buffer (#554656; BD Biosciences). Fluorescence was studied using a FACSCalibur™ flow cytometer and analyzed using BD CellQuest™ software (both from BD Biosciences). For each sample, 20,000 events were recorded, and the percentage of positive cells was reported. SigmaStat™ version 4.0 software (Systat Software, Inc., San Jose, CA, USA) was used for statistical analysis.

In brief, 2×10⁵ cells were equilibrated to 37°C for 45 min and pulsed with FITC-conjugated dextran (40,000 molecular mass; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) at a concentration of 1 mg/ml. Cold staining buffer (BD Biosciences) was added to stop the reaction. The cells were washed 3 times and stained with mouse phycoerythrin-conjugated anti-CD11c antibody (1:1,000; #ab210309; Abcam, Cambridge, UK), and then analyzed using BD CellQuest software version 5.1 with the FACSCalibur™ flow cytometer. To obtain a background level, the non-specific binding of dextran to DCs was determined by the incubation of DCs with FITC-conjugated dextran for 30 min at 37°C. The medium used in the cultures with dextran stimulation was supplemented with GM-CSF, which is required for DCs to capture the antigen.

At the end of the study, blood was collected using a heart puncture and mice were euthanized via an intraperitoneal injection of 5 ml sodium pentobarbital (Jinan Haohua Industry Co., Ltd., Shandong, China). Murine interferon (IFN)-γ and interleukin (IL)-4 release were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with IFN-γ ELISA kit (#EM10012; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) and IL-4 ELISA kit (#EMIL4; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.), respectively, according to the manufacturer's protocol, using an iMark Microplate Absorbance Reader (Bio-Rad, Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, CA, USA).

Pooled spleen cells from immunized mice were stimulated by three parallel sets of cultures in the presence of 20 µl/ml mouse IL-2 (R&D Systems, Inc.). Equivalent spleen cells were co-cultured with DCs pulsed with LM8 cell lysate, poly I:C-matured DC or LM8 cell lysate alone (control). The stimulated T cells were harvested at 48 h, separated by passing through nylon wool and used as effector cells in the CTL assay. The LM8 cell lysate-loaded DCs, poly I:C-matured DCs and LM8 cells were labelled with ⁵¹Cr for 60 min at 37°C and plated in round-bottom 96-well plates at 2×10⁴ cells/well. Effector cells were added at various effector/target cell ratios in triplicate, in a total volume of 200 µl. After 5 h incubation, 25 µl of cell-free supernatants was collected from each well and assayed in a gamma counter (Wizard 1470-005; Perkin Elmer, Inc., Waltham, MaA, USA) for ⁵¹Cr release. The spontaneous release of ⁵¹Cr was assessed by incubation of the targets in the absence of effectors. Maximum or total release of ⁵¹Cr was determined by incubation of the targets in 0.1% Triton X-100 in distilled water. The percentage of specific ⁵¹Cr release was determined by the following calculation: Percentage of specific release = [(experimental - spontaneous)/(maximum - spontaneous)] × 100%.

An allogeneic MLR assay was performed using mDCs that were irradiated with 3,000 rad as a stimulator and allogeneic T cells as responder cells in the ratios of 1:1, 1:10, 1:25 and 1:100. The positive and negative controls used were 2.5% phytohemagglutinin-stimulated T cells (GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford, UK), and the DCs or T cells alone, respectively. Cultures were made in V bottom 96-well plates at a final volume of 200 µl of complete medium supplemented with 10% human AB serum (Sigma-Aldrich) for 5 days and 3H-thymidine was added at a concentration of 1 µCurie/well at 18 h prior to the end of the culture. Proliferative responses were measured by a liquid scintillation counter (PerkinElmer, Inc.) and expressed as the mean count/min obtained for triplicate wells.

The differences between the two groups were determined using analysis of variance and the Scheffe test. All analyses were conducted using SigmaStat™ version 4.0 software. Results were expressed as the mean ± standard deviation, and P<0.05 was considered to indicate a statistically significant difference.

DCs were assessed for cell surface phenotypes by flow cytometry. A greater degree of maturation was observed in LM8-pulsed DCs than in poly I:C-matured DCs. The results showed that DCs expressed a high level of function of associated surface antigens in the LM8-pulsed mDCs, including the following: CD80⁺, 89%; CD83⁺, 86%; CD86⁺, 88%; CD205⁺, 66%; and CD209⁺, 58% (Fig. 1). The DCs matured with the poly I:C antigen (control) showed similar surface antigen expression (Fig. 2), and no significant difference was indicated in the expression profile of the two groups.

Endocytosis is a functional feature of iDCs which decreases with maturation (17). The iDCs obtained on day 6 demonstrated high endocytotic capability. As expected, an increased dextran uptake occurred by iDCs (day 6 culture) compared with the day 8 mDCs, but the increase was not statistically significant (P=0.12) (Fig. 3). However, compared with the LM8 cells, a statistically significant increase in dextran uptake was observed in the day 6 and 8 cells (P<0.026).

To determine the ability of LM8 cell lysate-pulsed DCs to generate LM8-specific CTLs against tumor cells, in vitro CTL assays with splenocytes from C3H mice immunized with the DC vaccine were performed. Mice that were previously injected with LM8 cells to develop a tumor but were not administered DCs acted as controls. As shown in Fig. 4, the highest CTL activity was noted in mice immunized with LM8 cell lysate-pulsed DCs in vivo. Mice immunized with poly I:C-matured DCs demonstrated a low level of CTL activity, whereas mice injected with only LM8 cells demonstrated further decreased LM8-specific lysis. Thus, LM8-specific CTL activity was significantly enhanced in mice immunized with LM8 cell lysate-matured DCs compared with poly I:C-matured DCs (P<0.046).

Serum IFN-γ levels were increased in mice that received LM8 cell lysate-pulsed DCs (116.0±5.15 pg/ml) compared with the poly I:C-matured DC group (57.33±2.31 pg/ml; P<0.05) (Fig. 4). Serum IL-4 was decreased in the mice that received DCs pulsed with LM8 cell lysate, at 12.23±4.75 pg/ml vs. 41.06±2.51 pg/ml in poly I:C mDCs (P<0.047) (Fig. 5).

The effect of the two DC populations on the allogeneic responder lymphocyte was assessed using an MLR assay. The capacity of the DC subsets to stimulate allogeneic T cells was associated with the levels of co-stimulatory molecules CD86, CD83, CD205 and CD209 of the DC subpopulations (18). In order to investigate the critical function of mDCs to activate T cell proliferation through antigen presentation, the present study determined whether LM8 cell lysate-pulsed DCs could induce antigen-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell responses. The results revealed that priming of DCs with LM8 effectively enhanced CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cell proliferative responses at a DC:T cell ratio of 1:1, 1:10 and 1:25, compared with LM8 cells alone (Fig. 6).