Fig. 3.

a, b Vaccination with synthesized DDX3X protein with DCs induced protective immunity against parental melanoma cells. Challenge of mice with parental B16 cells after immunization with DCs pulsed with DDX3X, ovalbumin (OVA) at 5 μg/mL, 5,000 cGy-irradiated parental, or CD133⁺ B16 melanoma cells for 8 h. DCs were isolated as CD11c⁺ cells with CD11c microbeads and autoMACS™ after 8-h culture. One million CD11c⁺ DCs were subcutaneously administered to B6 mice. Two weeks after immunization, the mice were subcutaneously inoculated along the midline of the abdomen with 2 × 10⁶ parental B16 cells. Each group contained 5 mice. *P <0.05 and **P < 0.01. c, d, e Vaccination with synthesized DDX3X protein with DCs induced therapeutic antitumor reactivity against established skin melanoma. Parental B16 melanoma cells (2 × 10⁵) were subcutaneously inoculated along the midline of the abdomen. On days 2, 9, 16 following tumor inoculation, 1 × 10⁶ DCs pulsed with DDX3X or OVA at 5 μg/mL were subcutaneously injected at the mice’s right flanks. a Each group contained 5 mice. d Each group contained 12 mice. The tumor growth curve of each mouse is depicted in Fig. 4e. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01