Fig. 5.

Induction of infiltrating immune effector cells in the spleen and tumor microenvironment of mice treated with DC vaccination plus pomalidomide with dexamethasone and PD-L1 blockade. Using flow cytometry, we measured the proportions of infiltrating effector cells in the spleen and tumor microenvironment at days 31–34 after treatment. The combination of DC vaccination + pomalidomide with dexamethasone + PD-L1 blockade resulted in significantly increased percentages of splenic effector CD4⁺ T cells (a, b) and effector CD8⁺ T cells (c, d) compared to the other groups (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001). Moreover, the DC vaccination groups exhibited significantly increased proportions of tumor-infiltrating CD4⁺ T cells (e, f) and CD8⁺ T cells (g, h) compared to the PBS control and pomalidomide with dexamethasone + PD-L1 blockade groups. These results suggested that the combination of DC vaccination + pomalidomide with dexamethasone + PD-L1 blockade stimulated robust infiltration of immune effector cells in the spleen and tumor microenvironment of treated mice. Data are representative of three independent experiments