Figure 5.
The identification of HLA‐A2‐restricted CTL epitopes of FOXM1 by using HLA‐A2 Tgm. HLA‐A2 Tgm were primed by injection of BM‐DCs (5 × 105) pulsed with the mixture of FOXM1‐derived peptides carrying HLA‐A2 (A*0201) binding motif into the peritoneal cavity of the Tgm twice with a 1 week interval. Seven days after the 2nd vaccination, spleens were isolated and CD4− spleen cells (5 × 106/well) were stimulated with syngeneic irradiated BM‐DCs (5 × 105/well) pulsed with each peptide for 6 days. Cultured CD4− spleen cells were subjected to ELISPOT assay to count IFN‐γ‐producing cells/5 × 104 CD4− spleen cells upon stimulation with 1 × 104 BM‐DCs with (black) or without (white) peptide loading. The columns and bars indicate mean of triplicate assays and SE, respectively. The data are each representative of 3 independent experiments. The underlines indicate the peptides that induced peptide‐specific responses (p < 0.05).