CD40 activation repairs cDC1 maturation in KPC tumors.
(A) Timeline of subcutaneous implantation of KPC cell line 6419.c5, administration of CD40 agonist (FGK45), and harvest of tissues for flow cytometric analysis. (B) Enumeration of cDC1s per live cells in subcutaneous KPC tumors from untreated and FGK45-treated mice. (C) Enumeration of CD11cintMHCIIhi migratory/activated cDC1s in the TdLN. (D) Expression of Ccr7 in CD11c+ cells purified from the iLNs of healthy mice and TdLNs of untreated and FGK45-treated mice bearing subcutaneously implanted KPC tumors. (E) Expression of maturation markers CD40, CD80, CD86, MHC II (I-A/I-E), and PD-L1 on cDC1s from the tumors of untreated and FGK45-treated mice. MFI, mean fluorescence intensity. (F and G) Maturation marker expression on cDC1s from the (F) TdLN and (G) spleen of healthy mice, untreated tumor-bearing mice, and FGK45-treated tumor-bearing mice. (H) Enumeration of H-2Kb:SIINFEKL tetramer–positive splenic CD8+ T cells from healthy mice, untreated tumor-bearing KPC mice, and FGK45-treated tumor-bearing KPC mice 12 d following subcutaneous implantation of OVA-expressing clonal KPC cell line 4662.V6ova. 100 µg FGK45 was administered on day 9 after implantation. Error bars indicate mean ± SD. ****, P < 0.0001; ***, P < 0.001; **, P < 0.01; *, P < 0.05 (two-tailed Student’s t test in B, C, E; one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s HSD post-test in D, F, G, H). Data shown are representative of four independent experiments with at least three mice per group.