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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Breast Cancer Manag. 2013 May 1;2(3):231–244. doi: 10.2217/bmt.13.15

Figure 1. Anthracycline-killed tumor cells undergo immunogenic cell death.

Figure 1

As a result of endoplasmic reticulum stress, cancer cells expose calreticulin on their cell surface at a preapoptotic stage. During apoptosis, the tumor sheds antigens, releases ATP and secretes HMGB1 protein. Together, these substances facilitate recruitment of DCs to the tumor microenvironment (ATP), uptake of antigens by the DCs (calreticulin) and optimize antigen presentation to CTLs (HMGB1). In turn, these tumor-specific CTLs can lyze additional tumor cells.

CTL: Cytotoxic T lymphocyte; DC: Dendritic cell.