Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Sep 1;135(5):1165-77.
doi: 10.1002/ijc.28766. Epub 2014 Feb 20.

High hydrostatic pressure induces immunogenic cell death in human tumor cells

Affiliations

High hydrostatic pressure induces immunogenic cell death in human tumor cells

Jitka Fucikova et al. Int J Cancer. .

Abstract

Recent studies have identified molecular events characteristic of immunogenic cell death (ICD), including surface exposure of calreticulin (CRT), the heat shock proteins HSP70 and HSP90, the release of high-mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1) and the release of ATP from dying cells. We investigated the potential of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) to induce ICD in human tumor cells. HHP induced the rapid expression of HSP70, HSP90 and CRT on the cell surface. HHP also induced the release of HMGB1 and ATP. The interaction of dendritic cells (DCs) with HHP-treated tumor cells led to a more rapid rate of DC phagocytosis, upregulation of CD83, CD86 and HLA-DR and the release of interleukin IL-6, IL-12p70 and TNF-α. DCs pulsed with tumor cells killed by HHP induced high numbers of tumor-specific T cells. DCs pulsed with HHP-treated tumor cells also induced the lowest number of regulatory T cells. In addition, we found that the key features of the endoplasmic reticulum stress-mediated apoptotic pathway, such as reactive oxygen species production, phosphorylation of the translation initiation factor eIF2α and activation of caspase-8, were activated by HHP treatment. Therefore, HHP acts as a reliable and potent inducer of ICD in human tumor cells.

Keywords: cancer immunotherapy; dendritic cells; heat shock proteins; high hydrostatic pressure; immunogenic cell death.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances