TABLE 3.

The immune cells in TME: Dendritic cells.

Cells	The research direction	Result	Reference
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	The combination of DC vaccine and PD-L1 inhibitor resulted in longer overall survival, smaller tumor size, and higher tumor cell apoptosis rate in mice. The combination of DC vaccine and PD-L1 inhibitor may have broad prospects as a new therapeutic strategy for HCC.	Teng et al. (2020)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	XCL1-GPC3 cells chemically attract murine XCR1CD8α dendritic cells (DCs) and human XCR1CD141 DCs, and promote their IL12 production.	Chen et al. (2020)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	A more severe reduction in basal OCR was observed in tumor-derived DCs exposed to AFP due to down-regulation of cytochrome C oxidase. The expression of PGC1-α in circulating medullary DC in HCC patients was decreased, and the ability to stimulate the function of antigen-specific effector was impaired, indicating the negative effect of AFP on DC metabolism.	Santos et al. (2019)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	AFP down-regulated CD1 on DC, but had little effect on NKT cell activation.	Li et al. (2019a)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	DC-CIK cells can inhibit the growth of HCC and LCSC in vitro and in vivo, and the most successful DC-triggered cell killing activity can be achieved through their LCSC antigen loading.	Yang et al. (2018b)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	MIP-10 enhances the antitumor activity of the DC/tumor fusion vaccine by alleviating the immunosuppressive tumor environment.	Hu et al. (2017)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	The use of nifurazine and DC-loaded TCL significantly increased the survival rate, inhibited tumor growth and promoted anti-tumor immune response in HCC mice implanted in situ.	Zhao et al. (2017b)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	Overexpression of IL-12 induced by adenovirus vector can effectively immunize DC. Intratumor but not systemic injection of activated IL-12-DC is essential for effective tumor regression. Improved immunotherapy with IL-12-DC represents a promising approach for the treatment of HCC.	Vogt et al. (2014)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	β-GC activated mouse liver NKT cells and enhanced the anti-tumor activity of PAD-HBsAg-DC. β-GC may act as an effective innate immune enhancer to enhance the antitumor effect of PAD-HBsAg-DC vaccine.	Long et al. (2013)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	Camory may play an important role in the development and progression of HCC through recruitment of DC and NK cells.	Lin et al. (2011)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	Electroporation of GPC-3 mRNA is an effective method for antigen-carrying monocytes to generate DCs because they produce functional GPC-3 reactive T cells in vitro.	O'Beirne et al. (2010)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	Immature DCs(IMDCs) derived from human monocytes were fully mature after effective phagocytosis of dying cells, and showed significant proliferation and cytotoxicity to HLA-matched HEPG (2) cells in autologous peripheral blood monocytes (PBMC).	Xing et al. (2009)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	Secondary lymphoid tissue chemokines (SLC) are strongly expressed in secondary lymphoid organs. It has the ability to promote dendritic cell (DC) and T cell chemotaxis, making it a promising candidate for cancer therapy.	Liang et al. (2007)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	AdvHAFP-transduced DCs activate higher frequencies of Th1 CD4 responses to AFP in healthy donors and AFP positive HCC patients. Importantly, when activated by adenovirus-engineered DC, the cytokine expression profile of CD4+T cells was biased towards the production of interleukin-2 and interferon-γ, which has therapeutic implications for vaccination work.	Evdokimova et al. (2007)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	Dendritic cells transfected with total HCC mRNA stimulated an antigen-specific cytotoxic T cell response capable of recognizing and killing autologous tumor cells in vitro.	Peng et al. (2006)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	Impairment of MDCs produced by IL-12 may result in impaired stimulation of naive T cells, suggesting that targeted IL-12 therapy may enhance tumor-specific immune responses in patients with HCC.	Ormandy et al. (2006)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	The combination of PEI or RFTA with active antigen-specific immunotherapy using DCS is a promising approach to induce a sustained anti-tumor immune response aimed at reducing tumor recurrence and metastasis in patients with HCC.	Ali et al. (2005)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	The phenotypic and functional deficits of PBMC-derived DCs in LC and HCC patients may play a key role in HBV infection and HCC immune escape. After tumor is stimulated by antigen, DC function can be enhanced in LC patients.	Wong et al. (2005)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	Ad-HBsAg-transduced DCs stimulated a strong cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response to HBsAg-expressing tumor cells and protected mice from lethal tumor attack.	Qiu et al. (2005)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	At concentrations up to 20 μg/mL, AFP did not alter the in vitro generation, maturation and T cell stimulation of DC. Higher AFP concentration ( >20 μg/ml) led to phenotypic changes in DC without impair its ability to stimulate CD4+ T cells. Independent of serum AFP levels, the frequency and function of DC and AFP-specific T cells did not decrease in HCC patients.	Ritter et al. (2004)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	Autologous DCs containing the HCA587 protein can induce specific T cell responses in healthy individuals by in vitro stimulation, and HCA587 is a good candidate for the development of a protein-based therapeutic DC tumor vaccine for the treatment of HCC patients.	Li et al. (2004)
Dendritic cells	immunotherapy	DCs transfected with MAGE-1 gene can induce higher cytotoxicity of SMMC7721 in vitro, suggesting that this transgenic DC may have the potential to induce specific antitumor activity and be used as a novel HCC vaccine.	Liu et al. (2001)
Dendritic cells	The immune mechanism	Decline in DC function and normal T cell response were observed in HBV-infected HCC patients, suggesting that the low function of DC is related to the pathogenesis of HBV or HCV-infected HCC.	Kakumu et al. (2000)