ABSTRACT
Dendritic cells (DC) are now recognized as the most potent professional antigen presenting cells (APC). Several studies on cancer immunotherapy using different approaches to induce cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in vivo recognizing tumor-associated antigens have been reported. However, the efficacy of immunotherapy in vivo may be limited by the local or systemic suppression of CTL generation or function. To explore the ability of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated human monocyte-derived DC involved in activity of autologous CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells, HLA-A2 restricted p53(264 - 272) peptide was used as tumor antigen, DC generated with LPS (DC-LPS(+)) or without LPS (DC-LPS(-)) were co-cultured with autologous T cells respectively. The results showed that CD4(+)CD25(+) T cell population in the DC-LPS(+) activated T cells was lower than that in the DC-LPS(-) activated T cells. This finding suggest that the relationship between DC-LPS(+) and population of CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells exists and this property may contribute to regulation of T cell responses to tumor-associated antigens.