Objective:To invetigate the antitumor
effects and mechanisms of tumor antigen peptide pulsed dendritic cells combined with
Astragalus.Methods:High purity DCs were obtained from 9 day culture of murine bone marrow cells.Mut1 is a MHC class I restricted tumor antigen peptide of
Lewis lung cancer.DCs were incubated with Mut1,then vaccines were established.Lung cancer were established on the mice.The tumor bearing mice were treated and the survival period of the mice was observed.Treatment groups were divided into PBS,DC Mut1,DC Mut1 with Astragalus(DC Mut1+AG).The phenotypes of splenocytes of these treated mice were detected by FACS.Interleukin 2 and interleukin 4 in the serum were measured by cytokine specific ELISA.Normal mice developed a potent immune protection against the attack from tumor cells.The treatment groups were same as the previous groups.Results:The DC Mut1+AG group demonstrated antitumor
effects with the regression majority of tumors.The proportion of the CD4 +T and CD8 +T cells in DC Mut1+AG group increased compared with that of DC Mut1 group( P <0 05).The IL 2 level of DC Mut1+AG group was higher than those of DC Mut1 group.The IL 4 level of DC Mut1+AG group was lower than that of the PBS group.Upon undergoing attack from LLC cells,DC Mut1+AG group had no formation of tumors.In contrast,4 of all the mice(6) treated with DC Mut1 developed tumors.Conclusion:DC Mut1+AG could exert antitumor effects in the mice and significantly inhibit tumor metastasis,which demonstrated a specific immune protection.