Fig. 5.

Cytokine and chemokine profiling and arginase activity in sera of patients treated with OK432-stimulated dendritic cells (DCs) during transcatheter hepatic arterial embolization (TAE) therapy (TAE + OK-DC; n = 13) and the historical controls treated with TAE without DC transfer (TAE; n = 22). (a) Serum samples were examined for their content of a validated panel of cytokines and chemokines using the Bioplex assay. Percentage changes in serum levels 2 weeks after the treatments were calculated as follows: [(post-treatment level – pretreatment level)/pretreatment level] × 100. The data are means ± standard error of the mean (s.e.m.) of the groups. *P < 0·05 when compared by the Mann–Whitney U-test. (b) Serum samples were tested for arginase activity by conversion of l-arginine to l-ornithine, and for alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activities. While there was a trend for the arginase activity in the TAE + OK-DC group to decrease 4 weeks after treatment, the difference did not reach statistical significance (P > 0·05). Percentage changes in serum levels 2 weeks after the treatments were calculated as follows: [(post-treatment level – pretreatment level)/pretreatment level] × 100. The data indicate means ± s.e.m. of the groups.