Fig. 5. HL patients frequently show immune responses against tumor-associated antigens.
A 2 × 105 peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients before therapy or under therapy (n = 71) were co-cultured with peptide pools of five tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) separately. Interferon-gamma (IFN-y) secretion was detected by FluoroSpot assay. Percentage of HL patients showing an immune response (black) against ≥1 (left chart), ≥2 (center chart) or ≥3 (right chart) of the five tested TAAs (BMLF-1, PRAME, MAGE-A4, MAGE-C1, and EBNA-1) is depicted. B Percentages of patients showing an IFN-y response against the indicated TAAs. C RNA expression of TAAs was determined by NanoString. MAGE-A4, PRAME, MAGE-C1 expression in HL patients with (black) and without (gray) an IFN-y response (before or under therapy, n = 71) in FluoroSpot analyses. D Representative FluoroSpot plots showing IFN-y secretion after co-culture with the indicated TAA. IFN-y secretion for two HL patients in matched samples before and after therapy is shown. E FluoroSpot response in patient-matched PBMCs obtained from HL patients before (BT) and after therapy (AT). Number of specific spots in 2 × 105 PBMCs after co-culture with the indicated peptide pools is depicted. Significant differences calculated by unpaired, two-tailed Mann–Whitney test (C) or nonparametric, two-tailed, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test (E) are indicated by asterisks. *p ≤ 0.05. When appropriate, mean ± 95% confidence interval is indicated.