[Effect of steep pulsed electric fields on the immune response of tumor-bearing Wistar mice].

This study sought to evaluate the effect of steep pulsed electric fields (SPEFs) on the immune response of Wistar mice inoculated with Walker256 sarcoma. Thirty mice were randomly divided into three groups: control group (group A, inoculated with Walker256 sarcoma, not treated), treatment group (group B, inoculated with Walker256 sarcoma, treated by SPEFs), and normal control group (group C, inoculated with normal saline, not treated). Tumor size was measured before and every 3 days after treatment by vernier caliper. MTT methods were used to assess the lymphocytes proliferation and the natural killer (NK) cells activity. TNF-a activity was measured by ELISA. Statistical analysis was performed utilizing the SPSS10.0 software package. The experiment results revealed that tumor growth was significantly inhibited in group B as compared with group A (P < 0.01), and that lymphocytes proliferation, NK cells activity and TNF-a activity in group B were not significantly different from those in group C (P = 0.953, P = 0.130, P = 0.080, respectively) but markedly higher than those in group A (P < 0.05). The results also showed that SPEFs could not only kill tumor cells but also induce antitumor immune response and improve the immune function of the host efficiently.