Killing effect of interleukin-13 receptor alpha 2 (IL-13Ralpha2) sensitized DC-CTL cells on human glioblastoma U251 cells.

Recent studies show that IL-13Ralpha2, a brain tumor-associated antigen for IL-13, may play a role in immunotherapy for glioblastoma. Thus, we stimulated the lymphocyte by monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs). The DCs were pulsed with IL-13Ralpha2 in vitro and then co-cultured with lymphocytes. After inducing cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) and co-culturing with U251 cells for 24 h in 96 wells, Cell Count Kit-8 (CCK-8) was added to every well equally. The optical density (OD) value was detected and recorded after 2 h. The DCs efficiently presented the antigen to the CTLs, resulting in CTLs activation and proliferation. The induced CTLs showed specific cytotoxic against U251 cells (P<0.01). The results demonstrated that IL-13Ralpha2 induced CTLs could kill glioma U251 in vitro, which suggests that IL-13 Ralpha2 might have such an impact in vivo and thus recombinant IL-13Ra2 protein might be used as an anti-tumor vaccine, providing a promising new strategy for the treatment of brain malignant gliomas. Crown Copyright (c) 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.