Exogenous recombinant human IL-12 augments MHC class I antigen expression on human cancer cells in vitro.

We investigated whether expressions of MHC class I and class II antigens relevant to tumor antigen presentation were changed on human tumor cells cultured with or without recombinant human IL-12(rhIL-12). We showed that the expression of MHC class I antigen on UTC-8, 28-1Cl and SBC-3 cells was augmented when these cancer cells were cultured with rhIL-12. The expression of class II antigen was slightly raised on UTC-8 and 28-1Cl cells by rhIL-12, but not enhanced on SBC-3 cells. These results suggest that rhIL-12 may provide possible enhancement of immunologic tumor recognition, and cytotoxic activity of lymphocytes against tumors through the enhanced expression of MHC class I antigen.