Fig. 5.

Anti-tumor efficacy of aAPC generated Mart-1 specific CTL was comparable with DC based expansion. a SCID mice (n = 4–5) were transferred i.v. with equal number of Mart-1 specific CTL (3 × 10⁶ cells/mouse) expanded using either aAPC or DC. Mice were also injected s.c. with HLA-A2⁺ melanoma cells on the same day. These mice received rhIL-2 (2 × 10⁵ IU/mouse) on days 0 and 2. Untreated mice were used as a control. All mice were monitored for tumor growth and the tumor size was recorded. The difference obtained in tumor growth between mice transferred with aAPC or DC expanded Mart-1 specific CTL and control groups was statistically significant (* P < 0.025) as determined by Wilcoxon rank sum test. b After measuring the tumor growth, tumors were harvested and weight was determined at the end of the experiment. The difference in the tumor weight between the aAPC or DC expanded Mart-1 specific CTL treated and control groups was statistically significant by Student’s t test (* P < 0.05)