An autologous system for culturing head and neck squamous cell carcinomas for the assessment of cellular therapies on the chorioallantois membrane.

The evaluation of novel immunotherapeutic anti-cancer strategies requires target and effector cells from the autologous host to avoid false positive results because of allo-reactivity. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells (HNSCC) do not proliferate under standard culture conditions in plastic ware. To create an autologous model, the chorioallantois membrane (CAM) of chicken embryos was employed to culture HNSCC and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Separated tumor cells were co-incubated with a cytostatic agent, PBMC, or mere cell culture medium as a control. Tumor cell lysis was assessed by acridine orange staining or by flow cytometry analysis of iodide marked cells after 24 and 48 h of co-incubation. Incubation with cisplatin resulted in a decrease of viable cells by 49% after 24 h and 48 h. In contrast, incubation with mere culture medium resulted in an increase of viable tumor cells by 5% after 24 h and a decrease of 4% after 48 h; the incubation of tumor cells and PBMC led to a non-significant decrease by 14% after 24 h and 16% after 48 h. Taken together, the CAM supports a favorable environment for the co-culture of HNSCC and PBMC, thus providing an approximated in vivo autologous model to assess the efficacy of new cell-therapeutical approaches.