

* Department of Oncology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, and
Second Department of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Osaka University Faculty of Dentistry, Osaka University, Suita, Japan; and
Department of Pathology, Sumitomo Hospital, Osaka, Japan
Correspondence: Dr. Hiromi Fujiwara, Department of Oncology (C6), Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2, Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. E-mail: hf{at}ongene.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
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Key Words: T cell migration interleukin (IL)-12 tumor immunity
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(IFN-
) by Th1 cells [11
12
13
14
]. After IL-12 was demonstrated to possess the capacity to promote a Th1-mediated inflammatory response, this cytokine has also been reported to exhibit potent anti-tumor efficacy in a number of mouse tumor models [15 16 17 18 ]. In some but not all tumor models, T cells from tumor-bearing mice were shown to express IL-12R [19 ], and administration of recombinant (r)IL-12 into these tumor-bearing mice resulted in regression of growing tumors in a T cell-dependent manner [17 , 18 ]. Although it is obvious that IL-12 has an anti-tumor effect, such an effect has been recognized for exogenous rIL-12 used as an immunomodulatory agent. Regarding the production of endogenous IL-12, only a few papers [20 , 21 ] showed intratumoral expression. However, it remains unclear whether IL-12 is endogenously produced in tumor-bearing hosts as a result of the hosts anti-tumor-immune response and whether endogenous IL-12 contributes to the development of T cell-mediated tumor protection.
The present study investigated the potential role of endogenous IL-12 in the development of anti-tumor T cell responses. The results show that neutralization of endogenously produced IL-12 by pretreatment with anti-IL-12 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) during tumor immunization did not affect the generation of T cells with the capacity to inhibit tumor growth as assessed in tumor-neutralization assays (Winn assays). However, tumor-sensitized T cells that developed in IL-12-neutralized hosts failed to migrate from lymphoid organs to tumor sites. Consequently, IL-12-neutralized mice immunized to tumor via an intraperitoneal (i.p.) route exhibited a markedly reduced capacity to reject tumor cells subcutaneously (s.c.) challenged. It was also found that the migration of T cells generated in anti-IL-12-untreated mice to tumor masses prepared in anti-IL-12-treated mice was markedly inhibited. Thus, the results indicate that endogenously produced IL-12 plays critical roles in the acquisition of a tumor-migratory capacity by T cells and the development of a T cell-accepting capacity in tumor masses.
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Mice
Male BALB/c and female B6C3F1 mice were obtained from Shizuoka Experimental Animal Center (Hamamatsu, Japan) and were used at 69 weeks of age.
Reagents
Anti-IL-12 mAb (C17.8) [24
] was prepared from ascitic fluid of hybridoma cells. The purification was performed by precipitation with ammonium sulfate followed by YFLC Gel filtration (Yamazen Corporation, Osaka, Japan). Control rat immunoglobulin G (IgG) was obtained from BioMeda (Foster City, CA). Murine rlL-12 was provided from Genetics Institute Inc. (Cambridge, MA). A fluorescent dye, PKH-26-GL (abbreviated as PKH-26), was purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO).
Preparation of tumor-immunized or tumor-bearing mice
To prepare tumor-immunized mice, tumor cells were treated in vitro with 100 µg/ml mitomycin-C (MMC) for 60 min. Mice were inoculated i.p. with 105 MMC-treated tumor cells three times at 4- or 5-day intervals. To prepare tumor-bearing mice, mice were inoculated s.c. with viable tumor cells (1x106/mouse) and used at 2- to 4-week tumor-bearing stages.
Preparation of T cell-enriched, Thy1+ cell-depleted and NK1.1+ cell-depleted splenocyte populations
Spleen cells were depleted of B cells by immunomagnetic-negative selection, as described [25
]. Briefly, spleen cells were incubated with magnetic particles bound to goat anti-mouse Ig (Advanced Magnetics, Cambridge, MA). Surface Ig-negative cells were obtained by removing cell-bound magnetic particles with a rare earth magnet (Advanced Magnetics) and were used as a T cell-enriched population (>90% purity). For the preparation of Thy1+ cell- and NK1.1+ cell-depleted populations, spleen cells were incubated with superparamagnetic microbeads conjugated to anti-Thy1 or anti-DX5 mAb (Miltenyi Biotec, Sunnyvale, CA). Labeled cells were separated by magnetic cell sorting using the MiniMACS (Miltenyi Biotec). The nonmagnetic cells were collected after passing through a MiniMACS column. This procedure repeated twice, and the nonmagnetic cells that passed through the second MiniMACS column were used as a Thy1+ (T cell)- or NK1.1+ cell-depleted population.
Tumor-neutralization test (Winn assay)
A splenic T cell-enriched or T cell- or NK1.1+ cell-depleted population from normal or tumor-sensitized mice was admixed with viable tumor cells, and the mixture was inoculated s.c. into normal recipient mice. Tumor growth was measured and expressed as the mean ± SE of five mice/group.
Anti-IL-12 mAb treatment
Anti-IL-12 mAb (1 mg/mouse/time) was injected 1 day before the first and second immunization with tumor cells (twice at a 4- or 5-day interval). Control mice were given the same amount of rat Ig.
rIL-12 treatment
rIL-12 (0.5 µg/time) was administered i.p. to tumor-bearing mice three times every other day.
A lymphoid cell migration assay
The assay system was essentially the same as previously described [26
]. Staining spleen cells with a fluorescent dye (PKH-26) was performed according to the manufacturers recommended procedure. Briefly, spleen cells suspended to a concentration of 5 x 107/ml in 1 ml diluent were allowed to react with 5 x 10-6 M PKH-26 dissolved in 1 ml diluent for 5 min at 37°C. Labeling was stopped by adding 2 ml FCS, and cells were washed five times with RPMI 1640 containing 10% FCS. Mice with similar tumor sizes (approximately 7 mm in diameter) were used as recipients for this assay. PKH-26-labeled spleen cells (3x107 cells in 250 µl RPMI-1640 medium) were injected intravenously (i.v.) into recipient (IL-12-untreated, homologous tumor-bearing) mice. Twenty-four hours after injection, tumor masses were removed, and cryostat sections were prepared. The entry of fluorescence-labeled donor cells was quantified under a fluorescence microscopy and expressed as the mean cell number ± SE per section.
Histological examination
Tumor masses were fixed in 10% formalin, embedded in paraffin, sectioned, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) for histological examination.
Staining procedure of immunohistochemical examination
The following reagents were purchased to perform immunohistochemical examination: biotinylated anti-mouse CD4 and anti-CD8 mAb (PharMingen, San Diego, CA); biotinylated rat IgG (Jackson ImmunoResearch, West Grove, PA); Histofine SA-PO kit and Histofine 3,3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride (DAB) kit (Nichirei Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). Samples were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde for 612 h at 4°C and then washed sequentially with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing 10, 15, and 20% sucrose for 6 h each at 4°C. The samples were embedded in Tissue-Tek OCT compound (Sakura Finetechnical Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) and frozen at -80°C. Cryostat sections (5 µm) were cut, air-dried, and then washed three times with PBS. The sections were incubated in PBS containing 10% hydrogen peroxide at room temperature for 30 min for blocking endogenous peroxidase activity before a biotinylated Ab was added. After preincubation with 4% bovine serum albumin solution, the tissues were overlaid with various biotinylated Ab and incubated in a humidified chamber at room temperature for 2 h. After washing three times, the sections were incubated with peroxidase-conjugated streptavidin solution for 30 min. After additional three-time washing, the labeling was visualized with 0.03% DAB solution containing 0.1% hydrogen peroxide for several minutes.
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
Total RNA was prepared from cytokine-stimulated T cells by the acid guanidium-thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform method. Total RNA (1 µg) was reverse-transcribed into cDNA in a total volume of 20 µl using random primers and SUPERSCRIPTTMII RNase H- RT (Life Technologies, Rockville, MD). PCR amplification was carried out in a total volume of 50 µl PCR Gold Buffer (x1; PE Applied Biosystems, Branchburg, NJ) containing 1.0 µl first-strand cDNA, 1.5 mM MgCl2, 0.25 mM of each dNTP, 2 µM of each primer, and 0.5 U Ampli Taq Gold DNA polymerase (PE Applied Biosystems). The following oligonucleotides were used: IL-12 p35 sense primer 5'-CTCCTAAACCACCTCAGTTTGGCCAGGGTC-3', IL-12 p35 antisense primer 5'-TAGATGCTACCAAGGCACAGGGTCATCATC-3', IL-12 p40 sense primer 5'-CACTCATGGCCATGTGGGAGCTGGAGAAAG-3', IL-12 p40 antisense primer 5'-TCCGGAGTAATTTGGTGCTTCACACTTCAG-3', ß-actin sense primer 5'-AGAAGAGCTATGAGCTGCCTGACG-3', and ß-actin antisense primer 5'-CTTCTGCATCCTGTCAGCAATGCC-3'. Cycle parameters were: annealing, 45 s at 60°C (IL-12 p35 and p40) or 55°C (ß-actin); elongation, 1 min at 72°C; and denaturation, 30 s at 94°C. Resulting PCR products were separated in 2% agarose gel and visualized by SYBR Green staining. Sequences of the IL-12 p35, IL-12 p40, and ß-actin (for standardization) were amplified out of each cDNA batch with 30, 30, and 18 amplification cycles, respectively.
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[27
, 28
], and APC produce IL-12 [29
] through T cell-APC interactions. To determine whether IL-12 expression is induced in vivo in lymphoid organs of mice receiving tumor vaccination, we examined the expression of mRNA for IL-12 p35 and p40. BALB/c and B6C3F1 mice were immunized i.p. with 105 MMC-treated syngeneic tumor cells (CSA1M for BALB/c and OV-HM for B6C3F1) three times at 1-week intervals. One day after the third immunization, spleens were harvested. Total RNA wa0s isolated from spleen cells of normal and tumor-immunized mice and subjected to RT-PCR. As shown in Figure 1A
, freshly prepared spleen cells from tumor-immunized but not from normal mice express mRNAs for IL-12 p35 and p40 subunits. Although IL-12 p70 was not detected in plasma from tumor-bearing mice (data not shown), the above results suggest that IL-12 is endogenously induced in lymphoid organs from tumor-immunized mice.
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Figure 1. Expression of IL-12 mRNAs by spleen cells from tumor-immunized and tumor-bearing mice. (A) BALB/c and B6C3F1 mice were immunized i.p. with 105 syngeneic CSA1M and OV-HM tumor cells, respectively, three times at 1-week intervals. One day after the third immunization, spleens were harvested. (B) BALB/c and B6C3F1 mice were inoculated s.c. with 106 syngeneic CSA1M and OV-HM tumor cells, respectively. Spleens were harvested at 4 (CSA1M)- or 3 (OV-HM)-week tumor-bearing stages. Total RNA was isolated from freshly prepared spleen cells. Isolated RNA was subjected to RT-PCR for IL-12 p35, IL-12 p40, and ß-actin (control) mRNA transcripts.
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Figure 2. Comparable levels of generation of tumor-neutralizing effector T cells in spleens from anti-IL-12-treated or untreated mice following tumor immunization. Mice were injected i.p. with 1 mg/mouse anti-IL-12 mAb followed by the same treatment 4 days later. These anti-IL-12-treated or untreated (control rat Ig-treated) mice were immunized with 105 MMC-treated tumor cells 1 day after the first anti-IL-12 treatment and were boosted twice at 4- to 5-day intervals. Spleens were harvested 1 week after the third immunization. Graded numbers of splenic T cells from mice immunized to CSA1M (A) or OV-HM (B) following anti-IL-12 treatment were admixed with 106 viable tumor cells, and the mixture was inoculated s.c. into syngeneic recipient mice. [E:T indicates effector (splenic T cells):tumor cells.] The growth of admixed tumor cells was expressed as the mean ± SE of five mice/group.
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Figure 3. Tumor neutralization is mediated by T cells but not by NK1.1+ cells. Thy1+ cell (T cell)- and NK1.1+ cell-depleted splenic populations were prepared from normal spleen cells or cells of B6C3F1 mice sensitized to OV-HM with or without anti-IL-12 treatment as described in Materials and Methods. The cells were admixed with 106 OV-HM tumor cells for tumor neutralization test (A). Portions of the cells were confirmed for the depletion of Thy1+ cells or NK1.1+ cells by flow cytometry analysis with FACSCalibur after staining doubly with allophycocyanin-conjugated anti-B220 and a mixture of FITC-conjugated anti-CD4 plus anti-CD8 mAb (B, left for Thy1+ cell depletion) or with PE-conjugated anti-NK1.1 and FITC-conjugated anti-CD3 mAb (B, right for NK1.1+ cell depletion). The left panels show the staining of the whole (nongated) spleen cells. The right panels represent the staining after gating on cells other than B cells that were also stained with anti-B220. The numbers on each figure are the percentages of the respective mAb-stained cells.
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Figure 4. Failure of anti-IL-12-treated mice to reject directly challenged tumor cells following tumor immunization. Anti-IL-12 treatment and tumor immunization were done in the same protocol as that in Figure 2
. Anti-IL-12-treated and untreated mice were challenged s.c. with 106 viable tumor cells 1 week after the third immunization. Tumor growth was expressed as the mean ± SE of five mice/group.
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Figure 5. Decreased levels of cellular infiltration at tumor-challenged sites in anti-IL-12-treated mice. Anti-IL-12-treated and untreated mice were immunized with tumor cells three times and challenged with viable tumor cells. Two days later, the skin, including the tumor-challenged site, was removed and subjected to H&E staining. Original magnification, x400.
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Figure 6. Decreased levels of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell accumulation at OV-HM-challenged sites in anti-IL-12-treated mice. Portions of animals prepared in the experiments of Figure 5
were subjected to immunohistochemical examination. Cryostat sections were prepared from the skin, including the OV-HM tumor-challenged site, and were stained for CD4 and CD8. The results are representative of three different sections in each group. Original magnification, x400.
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Figure 7. Failure of T cells from anti-IL-12-treated tumor-immunized mice to migrate to tumor masses. Spleens were obtained from unimmunized normal (N) or tumor-immunized (Imm) mice with or without anti-IL-12 treatment. Spleen cells were labeled with PKH-26. Spleen cells (3x107/mouse) were transferred i.v. into syngeneic tumor-bearing mice. Twenty-four hours later, tumor masses were removed, and cryostat sections were prepared. The number of fluorescent dye-positive cells was evaluated under a fluorescence microscopy and expressed as the mean ± SE of three sections per tumor mass. The results are representative of three similar experiments.
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Figure 8. Decreased development of peritumoral stroma in tumor masses from anti-IL-12-treated recipient mice. Mice were inoculated s.c. with CSA1M or OV-HM tumor cells, and tumor masses were removed 3 weeks (CSA1M) or 2 weeks (OV-HM) after tumor cell implantation. Original magnification, x400.
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Figure 9. Spleen cells from IL-12-treated tumor-bearing mice fail to migrate into tumor masses generated in anti-IL-12-treated mice. IL-12 treatment of donor mice was performed by injecting rIL-12 (0.5 µg/mouse) to 3 weeks CSA1M-bearing or 2 weeks OV-HM-bearing mice three times every other day. Spleen cells from normal mice, tumor-bearing mice, or IL-12-treated tumor-bearing mice were stained with a fluorescent dye. These stained cells (3x107) were used as donor cells and i.v. transferred into syngeneic tumor-bearing recipient mice that had been treated with anti-IL-12 mAb or control rat IgG. Twenty-four hours after the donor cell transfer, cryostat sections of tumors in recipient mice were prepared. The results are representative of two similar experiments.
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IL-12 plays a central role in promoting innate and adaptive mechanisms of host defense through up-regulating the function of various effector cells in cell-mediated immune responses [1 , 2 ]. Such IL-12 effects have also suggested a critical role of this cytokine in tumor immunity. In fact, this notion was recently supported by the observations that administration of rIL-12 to tumor-bearing mice induces tumor regression in a number of tumor models [15 16 17 18 ]. Tumor rejection involves a number of processes: sensitization/activation of effector T cells with tumor antigens in lymphoid organs; migration of T cells together with other effector cells to tumor masses; and tumor cell attack by these tumor-infiltrating effectors. Previous studies [26 , 30 , 31 ] have suggested that IL-12 administered to tumor-bearing hosts functions for some of the above processes, particularly playing an important role in the trafficking of T cells to tumor masses. However, it remains to be solved whether IL-12 is endogenously produced during anti-tumor immune responses and if so, how such endogenous IL-12 works for tumor protection.
Regarding the production of IL-12 in tumor-bearing mice, our previous studies showed that spleen cells from tumor-bearing mice contain tumor-primed T cells and APC binding tumor antigens [27 , 28 ] and that culturing these two populations results in IL-12 production via the CD40-CD40 ligand interaction [29 ]. Our present results demonstrated that IL-12 mRNA expression occurs in spleens from mice receiving tumor vaccination. Taken together, it appears that APC produce IL-12 in lymphoid organs from tumor-bearing as well as tumor-immunized mice by interacting with tumor-sensitized T cells.
The present study demonstrated that endogenously produced IL-12 plays two aspects of roles in tumor immunity by acting on T cells and by functioning for tumor masses. Following tumor immunization, anti-IL-12-treated mice could generate in vivo tumor-neutralizing T cells in spleens, and there was no substantial difference in the magnitude of the tumor-neutralizing capacity between T cells from anti-IL-12-treated and untreated mice. These results indicate that IL-12 is not necessarily required for inducing the sensitization/activation of T cells with the capacity to eradicate tumor cells in vivo. Despite comparable levels of anti-tumor effector generation in spleens, however, a fundamental difference was observed in the capacity to reject tumor cells directly challenged at the s.c. site between IL-12-neutralized and unneutralized groups of mice. The inability of anti-IL-12-treated mice to reject challenged tumor cells was associated with the failure of effector T cells generated in lymphoid organs to migrate to the challenge site of tumor cells. The defect in T cell migration to tumor sites was functionally demonstrated using the in vivo lymphoid cell migration assay [26 ]: Donor cells from anti-IL-12-untreated tumor-immunized mice migrated to tumor masses in recipient mice, whereas cells from anti-IL-12-treated tumor-immunized mice failed to show the migration. Thus, IL-12 endogenously produced during anti-tumor immune responses confers T cells with the capacity to migrate to tumor sites.
The migration of leukocytes including T cells into sites of inflammation is a multistep process mediated by a series of cellular and molecular interactions [33 , 34 ]. We have demonstrated that T cell migration to tumor sites depends on the interaction between vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1)/intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and very late antigen-4/lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 [26 ]. Although the requirement for adhesion molecules in the migration process has been well appreciated [35 36 37 ], recent studies have shown that chemokines and their receptors also play a fundamental role in leukocyte migration [38 39 40 41 ] by inducing the functional activation of adhesion molecules [33 , 41 42 43 44 ]. It is also evident that among chemokine receptors, CCR5 and CXCR3 are expressed on a Th1 type of T cells infiltrating sites of inflammation [45 , 46 ]. In this regard, we recently found that IL-12 is the essential cytokine that is capable of inducing CCR5 expression on T cell receptor-triggered T cells [47 , 48 ]. These observations are compatible with the notion that neutralization of endogenous IL-12 during tumor immunization prevents CCR5 induction on tumor-sensitized T cells, thereby generating anti-tumor T cells without the capacity to migrate to tumor sites.
Further, we investigated the effect of IL-12 neutralization on the development of tumor masses from the morphological and functional aspects. Without IL-12 neutralization, CSA1M and OV-HM tumors developed peritumoral stroma between s.c. tissue and tumor parenchyma, as previously reported [31 , 32 ]. Our previous study also showed that there is a fundamental difference in the nature of vasculature between peritumoral and parenchymal tumor-associated stroma [31 ]: Vasculature at the former expressed ICAM-1/VCAM-1, whereas that at the latter did not. The development of peritumoral stroma is quite important for the induction of intratumoral T cell migration, as T cells make an entry to tumor masses exclusively at the peritumoral area [31 ], and T cell migration is almost completely inhibited by administration of anti-ICAM-1/anti-VCAM-1 mAb [26 ]. This study showed that neutralization of endogenously produced IL-12 inhibits the development of peritumoral stroma and that T cells fail to migrate to tumor masses lacking peritumoral stroma in anti-IL-12-treated mice. Although it is totally unknown how peritumoral stroma develops, our observations suggest that endogenously produced IL-12 is closely related to the development of this particular organization. This may be compatible with observations that the development of peritumoral stroma requires components involved in inflammatory responses [32 ].
Thus, it is obvious that endogenously produced IL-12 functions for the hosts anti-tumor immune responses via two different mechanisms, one of which is to confer T cells with the tumor-migratory capacity and the other, to function for the development of the T cell-accepting capacity of tumor masses. IFN-
is also required for mediating these mechanisms [30
, 32
]. As IFN-
is produced by T cells following IL-12 stimulation, the primary requirement would be IL-12 production. Considering that IL-12 also has the bioactivity independent of IFN-
actions, it is possible that a part of the above mechanisms is accomplished by IL-12 per se. Elucidation of the overall IL-12-mediated mechanisms could contribute to a better understanding of our attempt to enhance the efficacy of tumor vaccination.
Received November 27, 2001; revised July 31, 2002; accepted August 1, 2002.
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