Figure 1.

Tumor antigen-specific CD8⁺ (T)cell responses in SKIL cultures. An example is shown of a tetramer analysis of SKILs from patient II-D-12 (A). Cells were stained with tetramers encompassing the peptides gp100:154, gp100:280, tyrosinase or an irrelevant peptide (control) and with anti-CD8⁺ mAb. This analysis showes presence of TAA-specific CD8⁺ T cells against both gp100 epitopes and tyrosinase. Furthermore, a cytokine profile of the same T cells is shown after stimulation with T2 cells loaded with gp100 or tyrosinase peptide, BLM cells transfected with gp100 or tyrosinase, or MEL624 cells expressing both gp100 and tyrosinase (B). Functional TAA-specific T cells against gp100 and tyrosinase are present with a clear production of IFNγ and/or IL-2, but without IL-5 production.