The cryo-thermal therapy-induced IL-6-rich acute pro-inflammatory response promoted DCs phenotypic maturation as the prerequisite to CD4⁺ T cell differentiation

Abstract

In our previous studies, a novel tumour therapeutic modality of the cryo-thermal therapy has been developed leading to long-term survival in 4T1 murine mammary carcinoma model. The cryo-thermal therapy induced the strong acute inflammatory response and IL-6 was identified in an acute profile. In this study, we found that the cryo-thermal therapy triggered robust acute inflammatory response with high expression of IL-6 locally and systemically. The phenotypic maturation of dendritic cells (DCs) was induced by acute IL-6 following the treatment. The mature DCs promoted CD4⁺ T cell differentiation. Moreover, the production of interferon γ (IFN γ) in the serum and CD4⁺ T cells were both abrogated by IL-6 neutralisation following the treatment. Our findings revealed that the cryo-thermal therapy-induced acute IL-6 played an important role in initiating the cascading innate and adaptive anti-tumour immune responses, resulting in CD4⁺ T cell differentiation. It would be interesting to investigate acute IL-6 as an early indicator in predicating tumour therapeutic effect.

Keywords:

• Acute inflammation
• interleukine-6
• DCs maturation
• anti-tumour immune response

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFC0106201), National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1532116), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (11DZ2211000).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFC0106201), National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1532116), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (11DZ2211000).