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The Journal of Immunology, 2000, 164: 495-504.
Copyright © 2000 by The American Association of Immunologists

Expansion of Tumor-T Cell Pairs from Fine Needle Aspirates of Melanoma Metastases

Monica C. Panelli*, Adam Riker*, Udai Kammula*, Ena Wang*, Kang-Hun Lee{dagger}, Steven A. Rosenberg* and Francesco M. Marincola1,*,{dagger}

* Surgery Branch, Division of Clinical Sciences, National Cancer Institute, and {dagger} Department of Transfusion Medicine, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892


    Abstract
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Lymphocytes expanded from excised specimens can be used to characterize intratumoral T cell responses. These analyses, however, are limited to one time point in the natural history of the removed tumor. The expansion of autologous tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) from fine needle aspirates (FNA) of tumors potentially allows a dynamic evaluation of T cell responses within the same lesion at moments relevant to the disease course or response to therapy. Fourteen TIL cultures and 8 tumor cell lines were generated from 18 FNA (12 patients). Five of six TIL that could be tested against autologous tumor demonstrated specific reactivity. Two additional TIL for which no autologous tumor was available demonstrated recognition of HLA-matched melanoma cell lines. Serial FNA of the same lesions were performed in five HLA-A*0201 patients vaccinated with the emulsified melanoma Ag (MA) epitopes: MART-1:27–35; tyrosinase:368–376(370D); gp100:280–288(288V); and gp100:209–217 (210M). FNA material was separately cultured for a short time in IL-2 (300 IU/ml) after stimulation with irradiated autologous PBMC pulsed with each peptide or FluM1:58–66 (1 µmol/ml). No peptide-specific TIL could be expanded from prevaccination FNA. However, after vaccination, TIL specific for gp100:280(g280), gp100:209 (g209), and MART-1:27–35 (MART-1)-related epitopes were identified in three, three, and two patients, respectively. No Flu reactivity could be elicited in TIL, whereas it was consistently present in parallel PBMC cultures. This excluded PBMC contamination of the FNA material. This analysis suggests the feasibility of TIL expansion from minimal FNA material and localization of vaccine-specific T cells at the tumor site.


    Introduction
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
The identification of melanoma Ags (MA)2 recognized by T cells and their respective epitopes has stimulated interest in the exploitation of their immunological potential for the development of vaccines intended to treat cancer patients (1, 2). In vitro induction of epitope-specific CTL by exposure of PBMC to peptides with immunogenic sequences has proved effective and relatively easy (3). Thus, clinical protocols have been developed in which such peptides are given in combination with various adjuvants with the purpose of inducing human leukocyte Ag (HLA) class I-restricted T cell responses. As originally demonstrated by Vitiello et al. (4) in viral models, these vaccination protocols proved extremely effective in inducing T cell responses that could be demonstrated by comparative analysis of pre- and postvaccination PBMC cultures (5, 6, 7). Contrasting the effective induction of systemic T cell responses by these vaccines is their lack, in the majority of cases, of therapeutic effectiveness, which questions the validity of assays based only on the measurement of systemic T cell responses. Nevertheless, analysis of immune responses confined to a single MA/HLA allele combination targeted by the vaccination represents an unprecedented human model to test hypotheses suggested by preclinical studies.

Vaccines are aimed at enhancing the systemic immune competence of the host. However, achievement of substantial antitumor effector functions is complex and includes localization and persistence of active Ag-specific T cells at the tumor site (8, 9). Studies with 111In-labeled TIL have shown that their localization is necessary, although not sufficient, for the observation of tumor regression (10). Thus, it is reasonable to propose that tumor-host interactions could be better considered in the organ targeted by treatment.

Tumor-host interactions have traditionally been studied in excised surgical specimens by morphological or molecular methods to estimate protein or gene expression or to identify genetic abnormalities (9). These methods, however, do not allow the assessment of functional interactions between various cell populations infiltrating the tumors. The results of functional studies with freshly isolated tumor cells or lymphocytes can be confused by the extensive contamination with various cell types and the altered conditions of cells recently subjected to enzymatic or mechanical treatment. The expansion of TIL-tumor cell pairs from excised tumors has provided elegant models for the in vitro characterization of CTL-tumor interaction (11). Although it is not clear whether cultured cells are representatives of in vivo conditions, experiments performed with cell lines establish important principles of T cell-epitope interaction, which may allow formulation of useful hypotheses. Analysis of reagents obtained from excised tumor specimens, however, yields static information about a disease characterized by extreme genetic instability (12). The natural course of the removed tumor cannot be followed prospectively; therefore, to take the excised lesion as representative of other lesions left in vivo, homogeneity among metastases must be assumed. However, synchronous metastases are quite heterogeneous in expression of MA and HLA class I molecules (13), and this heterogeneity affects the T cell population of a given lesion (14). Furthermore, MA and HLA class I molecule expression gradually decrease with time either in reflection of the progressive dedifferentiation of tumor cells or as the result of immune selection (13, 15). Thus, tumor-T cell interactions could be better studied by following the progression of events occurring within the same lesion. This could be achieved by serial analysis of identical tumor samples through fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsies, which do not require excision of the tumor and therefore provide the opportunity to evaluate dynamically the expression of relevant markers on tumor or T cells (16, 17). The serial sampling of tumor metastases may yield important information about the adaptation in time of the host’s immune response to changing tumor cell phenotypes and at the same time allow correlation with size measurements of the same lesion collected throughout a relevant observation period. Because of the limited amount of material obtainable, however, FNA suffers its own limitations. The primary purpose of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the feasibility of developing tumor/T cell pairs from limited FNA material, which could be eventually used for serial analysis of the same tumor lesions.

An example of the dynamic nature of the tumor-host interaction is the adaptation of the tumor environment to vaccination with epitopes derived from MA. We previously noted a functional dissociation between systemic and local immune response in a patient whose disease progressed in spite of the maintenance of a systemic vaccine-specific T cell reactivity (17). Fading treatment effectiveness at the tumor site could be best explained, in that case, by loss in time of the target MA. Other observations suggest that MA and/or HLA class I molecule down-regulation is a common event in response to systemic therapies intended to enhance antitumor immune responses (13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24). The secondary goal of this study was, therefore, to sequentially analyze tumor and T cell adaptation over time in a small cohort of patients treated with an epitope-specific vaccination.


    Materials and Methods
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Cell lines

The melanoma cell lines 624.38 (HLA-A*0201/0301, B*1402/-, Cw*0702/0802) was generated by limiting dilution from a metastatic lesion (25). The A375 Mel (HLA-A*01/0201, B*17/-, Cw*06/-) melanoma cell line was purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) (Manassas, VA). 586-Mel (HLA-A*31, B8/-), 537-Mel (HLA-A*1, 26 B44,70), 1362 Mel (HLA-A*A-1, 25 B8,61), 1379 Mel (HLA-A-A*-11,0 B-35,60), and 888-Mel (HLA-A*01/2402, B*52/55, Cw*0102/1201) cell lines were derived from surgically removed metastatic lesions of patients treated at the Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD), and have been previously extensively characterized with regard to HLA and MA expression (26). The 583-EBV lymphocytic cell line (HLA-A3/30, -B7/44) was also developed from a melanoma patient and was used as an MA-negative control. All cell lines were maintained in complete medium consisting of RPMI 1640 (Biofluids, Rockville, MD) supplemented with 10 mM HEPES buffer, 100 U/ml penicillin-streptomycin (Biofluids), 10 µg/ml ciprofloxacin (Bayer, West Haven, CT), 0.03% L-glutamine (Biofluids), and 0.5 mg/ml amphotericin B (Biofluids) and 10% heat-inactivated FBS (Biofluids). T2 (ATCC), a cell line defective for endogenous processing and expressing HLA-A*0201 (27), was used to test CTL specificity toward HLA-A*0201-restricted epitopes.

Peptides

Four different peptides, MART-1:27–35 (MART-1, AAGIGILTV) and the modified gp100:209–217 (210M) (g209-2M, IMDQVPFSV), gp100:280–288(288V) (g280-9V, YLEPGPVTV), and tyrosinase:368–376(370D) (tyrosinase, YMDGTMSQV), were used for vaccination and in vitro testing as later specified. Furthermore, the following peptides were used for in vitro testing: the native gp100:209–217 (g209, ITDQVPFSV,); and gp100:280–288 (g280, YLEPGPVTA). The Flu-M1:58–66 peptide (Flu, GILGFVFTL by Multiple Peptide Systems, San Diego, CA) was also used as control in sensitization assays. All peptides, with the exception of Flu, were provided by the Cancer Therapy Evaluation program (National Cancer Institute). The peptide were produced to GMP (good manufacturing procedure) grade by solid phase synthesis techniques and solubilized in either sterile water or DMSO (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) according to their biochemical characteristics.

Patient selection and treatment

FNA biopsies were obtained from patients with metastatic melanoma undergoing various immunotherapy protocols at the Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute. To demonstrate the utility of repeated sampling of the same lesion, we characterized FNA material from five HLA-A*0201 patients vaccinated with the MA epitopes MART-1, tyrosinase, g280-9V, and g209-2M. Patients received four separate s.c. injections of each peptide emulsified in IFA at 3-wk intervals. HLA typing and subtyping for HLA class I and II were determined on patients’ PBMC or tumor cell lines using sequence specific primer-PCR (28, 29). When necessary, the identity of some HLA alleles was conclusively determined by sequencing of cDNA (30).

Expansion of TIL from FNA

With a 23-gauge needle, cells were aspirated from metastases and immediately suspended in Iscove’s medium (IM) (Biofluids) supplemented with 10 mM HEPES buffer, 100 U/ml penicillin-streptomycin (Biofluids), 10 µg/ml ciprofloxacin (Bayer), 0.03% L-glutamine (Biofluids), 0.5 mg/ml amphotericin B (Biofluids) and 10% heat-inactivated human AB serum (Gemini Bioproducts, Calabasas, CA). For TIL expansion, total cells, including tumor cells, RBC, and TIL, were counted and cultured at a concentration of 5 x 106 FNA cells/well of 24-well plates (Falcon, Franklin Lakes, NJ) with IM plus 6000 IU/ml (Chiron, Emeryville, CA). Epitope-specific TIL were expanded from serial FNA of metastases obtained before and after two and four vaccinations. The FNA material was cultured in 24-well plates at a concentration of 2 x 106 cells/well with 4–5 x 106 autologous irradiated (50 Gy) PBMC pulsed with 1 µM peptide. The in vitro sensitization was performed by separately stimulating FNA aliquots with each of the peptides MART-1, g209-2M, g280-9V, tyrosinase, and Flu. After 24 h and every 2 days thereafter, 300 IU/ml IL-2 were added to the cultures. Simultaneously with the FNA, leukaphereses were obtained and parallel cultures of Ficoll-Hypaque gradient-separated PBMC were performed. PBMC (4 x 106/well) were cultured in a 24-well plates with 1 µM peptide as described for the TIL or with no peptide. The addition of irradiated APC in TIL was not deemed necessary for PBMC cultures, which already contained a large monocytic population (3). To test whether results equivalent to TIL cultures could be obtained by the addition of irradiated APC to PBMC cultures, PBMC were also stimulated with 5 x 106 autologous peptide-pulsed, irradiated PBMC. These treatments were equivalent to the in vitro sensitization with peptide alone. After 10–12 days in culture, T cells were harvested and tested for Ag recognition.

Development of tumor cell lines from FNA

Tumor cell lines were developed in culture conditions identical with those adopted to expand TIL but without IL-2. The autologous cell lines were HLA class I and II matched to the phenotype of patients screened, and when equivocal (loss of MA expression) their neoplastic phenotype was proved by electron microscopy and karyotyping.

Assessment of Ag recognition by T cells derived from PBMC and TIL

Ag recognition by T cells derived from PBMC and TIL was assessed by IFN-{gamma} release assay. Effector cells (1 x 105) were plated with 5 x 104 stimulator cells (tumor cells or T2 cells pulsed with natural and modified MA epitopes or Flu peptide) in 96-well round-bottom plates in 200 µl IM. After a 24-h incubation at 37°C, the plates were centrifuged, and the supernatant was harvested for analysis by ELISA (Endogen, Cambridge, MA). IFN-{gamma} was reported as picograms of IFN-{gamma} per milliliter secreted by 5 x 104 effector cells in 24 h, and values double the background and >100 pg/ml were considered positive.

Phenotypic characterization of tumor cell lines and T cells

Cell surface expression of HLA, MA, and other surface Ags was determined by flow cytometry. MA expression was assessed by intracellular staining by fixing cells in 200 µl acetone for 10 min at room temperature and staining with the primary mAb (26). The following mAbs were used for detection of HLA surface expression: W6/32 (Sera Labs, Westbury, NY) specific for a monomorphic determinant of the HLA class I heavy chain (31); IVA-12 (ATCC) for HLA class II; KS-I (32) for HLA-A2. Anti-MART-1/MelanA murine IgG2b (M2-7C10) (16, 33) and anti-Pmel17/gp100 mAbHMB45 (Enzo Diagnostics, Farmingdale, NY) were used for MA detection. Abs used to characterize T cells included: anti-human CD8-FITC, CD4-PE, TCR-FITC, CD45RA-FITC, CD45RO-PE, cataneous lymphocyte Ag (CLA)-purified, CD95 ligand (L) (FASL)-purified, CD11b (MAC-1)-PE, CD44(pgp-1)-FITC, CD152(CTLA-4)-PE (PharMingen, San Diego, CA), CD56-PE, CD28-FITC, CD62L-PE, CD154-PE (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA); and FITC-anti-human CD49a, CD49b, CD49d, CD49e, CD49f (Serotec, Raleigh, NC). Primary staining with the purified Ab CD95L was followed by secondary staining with FITC-goat anti-mouse IgG. Staining with anti-human CLA was followed by secondary staining with FITC-anti rat IgM. Tetrameric peptide-HLA-A2 complexes were synthesized as described previously (34). The final concentration of tetramer was adjusted to 1 mg/ml for g209, g209-2M, MART-1 tetramer HLA (tHLA), and to 0.5 mg/ml for Flu tHLA. For FACS staining, TIL and PBMC cultures were washed and suspended at 2 x 105 cell/50 µl cold FACS buffer (PBS, 5% inactivated FCS (Biofluids). Cells were incubated on ice with 1 µg tHLA for 15 min and then with 20 µl anti-CD8-FITC (Becton Dickinson) for 30 min. Cells were washed twice in 2 ml cold FACS buffer before analysis by FACS (Becton Dickinson); 50,000 events were acquired for PBMC and TIL cultures.

For immunocytochemistry (IHC) staining, cytospin preparations of sequentially obtained FNA material were fixed in acetone and stained with the same mAbs used for the FACS analysis with the exception of HMB45 (Biogenex, San Ramon, CA). For secondary staining, biotinylated goat anti-mouse IgG (Kirkegaard & Perry Laboratories, Gaithersburg, MD) was used followed by avidin-biotin-peroxidase (Vectasin Elite Kit, Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA) (16).


    Results
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Expansion of tumor-T cell pairs from FNA of melanoma metastases

We expanded tumor cell and TIL lines from 18 FNA of melanoma metastases in 12 patients undergoing immunological treatment at our institution (Table IGo). TIL could be derived in 14 cultures whereas tumor cell lines could be derived in only 8 FNA from 6 patients. TIL-autologous tumor cell pairs could be obtained in five patients. In four patients, TIL-tumor cell pairs could be derived from the same lesion. TIL were most commonly CD4 or CD8 expressing T cells (Table IIGo) and had a phenotype consistent with Ag-experienced T cells (CD45RO positive, CD45RA negative). Activation markers demonstrated occasional expression of CD154 (CD40L) in cultures with a high percentage of CD4+ T cells, low expression of CD28, and no expression of CD152 (CTLA4) and CD95L (FasL) (data not shown). Analysis of markers related to trafficking to target organs identified high levels of CD44 and CD49d. Other homing receptors were less frequently (CD11b, CD49b, CD49f), rarely (CLA, CD62L), or not (CD49a, CD49e) expressed. Tumor cell lines were characterized according to the expression of HLA class I and II molecules, MA and ICAM-1 (CD54) (Table IIIGo). All cell lines expressed HLA class I molecules and cell lines obtained from HLA-A*0201 patients stained with KS-1 mAb specific for this allele. Not uncommonly for melanoma (35), several cell lines also expressed HLA class II molecules. As noted in cell lines derived from excised surgical specimens (26), gp100 was expressed less frequently than MART-1. The less frequent detection of gp100 in the cell lines derived from FNA was also in accordance with the most frequent loss of gp100 observed by IHC of the same FNA (Table IIIGo). A comparison of the expression of MA in cytospins of the original FNA compared with the cell lines suggested that the latter do not always accurately reflect the expression of MA in vivo, possibly because of overgrowth of MA-negative tumor cells during prolonged culture conditions. An example is cell line KA, R Th. This cell line stained positive for MART-1 at an early passage (Table IIIGo, FACS*, passage 5) but decreased the expression of this MA in subsequent passages (FACS**).


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Table I. Origin of FNA-derived CTL and tumor cells

 

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Table II. Phenotypic characterization of FNA-derived TIL1

 

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Table III. Phenotypic characterization of FNA-derived tumor cells1

 
Functional characterization of TIL expanded from FNA

The 14 TIL cultures were analyzed for recognition of autologous and/or HLA-matched tumors (Table IVGo). Five of six TIL cultures could recognize available autologous tumor cells. In addition two TIL cultures for which no autologous tumor was available could recognize HLA-matched tumor cell lines. One TIL culture (CM, L Ax) developed from a lesion that had lost expression of common differentiation Ags such as MART-1 and gp100 could recognize a new MA expressed by autologous or allogeneic melanoma cell lines in association with HLA-Cw*0702 (Panelli et al., manuscript in preparation). Two TIL cultures (KA, R Th and KA, R Hip) highly reactive to autologous tumor cells and HLA-A*0201 allogeneic melanoma cells included a significant proportion of MART-1 specific CTL according to tHLA staining (Fig. 1Go). Calculation of epitope-specific CTL indicated that MART-1-specific T cells represented 4 and 19% of KA, R Th and KA, R Hip CD8+ cells. Although the expression of MART-1 in the autologous cell line was reduced (Table IIIGo), analysis of MA expression in cytospins of the FNA from which the tumor and TIL were obtained had shown expression of MART-1 in vivo. These data suggest that it is possible to expand tumor and T cell lines, occasionally in pairs, from FNA that can be utilized in studies aimed at their functional characterization.


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Table IV. Functional characterization of TIL expanded from FNA1

 


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FIGURE 1. Soluble MHC-peptide tetramer (tHLA) staining of patient KA TIL derived from FNA of two different synchronous metastases (KA, R Th and KA, R Hip). KAe-2MART-1 is an epitope (MART-1)-specific TIL culture derived from a FNA of the R Th metastasis after two vaccinations with MA-specific epitopes. KA PBMC-Flu is a culture derived from Flu-sensitized PBMC obtained from apheresis after two epitope-specific vaccinations and was used as a positive control for tHLA-Flu staining. T cells (2 x 105/50 µl volume) were stained with 1 µg g209, MART-1, and Flu tHLA; 50,000 events were acquired for PBMC and TIL cultures. The percentages of MART-1/CD8+ T cells were: KA, R Th, 3.6%; KA, R Hip, 19.3%; KAe-2MART, 4.6%.

 
TIL expansion from serial FNA during immunization of melanoma patients with immunodominant MA-derived epitopes

To assess the feasibility and usefulness of TIL expansion from sequential FNA biopsies of the same lesion, we adopted an epitope-specific model. Patients were vaccinated by s.c. administration of g209-2M, g280-9V, MART-1, and tyrosinase peptides in IFA at 3-wk intervals. FNA were obtained before vaccination and 3 wk after the second and fourth vaccinations. Simultaneously, patients were leukapheresed and PBMC were induced in vitro. To exclude the possibility that blood contaminating the FNA could be accountable for the expansion of epitope-specific T cells by direct stimulation of PBMC (36), we tested differences in ability to induce Flu-specific CTL in cultures derived from FNA material and PBMC. Flu-specific T cell could be induced significantly more often in PBMC (p < 0.001, Fisher’s; Fig. 2Go), suggesting that blood contamination of the FNA was either absent or minimal.



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FIGURE 2. Frequency of successful expansion of Flu-specific CTL from PBMC and TIL obtained before (Flu-pre) and after (Flu-post) patients received MA epitope-specific vaccination (p < 0.001, Fisher’s). TIL were expanded from FNA material cultured in 24-well plates at a concentration of 2 x 106 cells/well with 4–5 x 106 autologous irradiated (50 Gy) PBMC pulsed with 1 µM Flu peptide and supplemented with 300 IU/ml IL-2. Simultaneously with the FNA, PBMC cultures were expanded from autologous PBMC. PBMC (4 x 106/well) were stimulated with 1 µM Flu peptide as described for the TIL for 10–12 days. Ag recognition by T cells from PBMC and TIL was assessed by IFN-{gamma} release assay. Effector cells (1 x 105) were cocultured for 24 h with 5 x 104 T2 cells pulsed with relevant and irrelevant peptides, and the supernatant was harvested for analysis by ELISA. IFN-{gamma} release is reported in picograms per milliliter, and values double the background and >100 pg/ml were considered positive.

 
We then compared the efficiency of induction of MA-specific T cells in pre- and postvaccination FNA from seven lesions (two from patient MC and two from patient CD) in five patients (Table VGo). No MA-specific TIL could be derived from prevaccination FNA. After vaccination, we could generate MART-1-, g209-, and g280-specific TIL in two, three, and three patients respectively (Fig. 3Go). In no case could tyrosinase-specific T cells be induced from FNA or PBMC. The combination of results obtained with various attempts in the same patient gave a reasonable success rate in expanding vaccine-specific TIL and suggested localization of vaccine-induced T cells at the tumor site. The success rate in expanding vaccine-specific TIL was not as high when each culture attempted was separately considered. Overall, 21 attempts were made to induce TIL specific for MART-1, g209-2M, or g280-9V (7 for each peptide) in prevaccination FNA and 36 in postvaccination FNA (12 for each peptide) (Table VGo). Vaccine-specific T cells could not be raised in prevaccination FNA cultures, whereas 12 of 36 attempts performed in postvaccination FNA generated MA-specific TIL (33%, Fisher’s p between pre- and postvaccination cultures, <0.005). Thus, repeated attempts of expansion from FNA material may enhance the sensitivity of the method.


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Table V. Origin of FNA-derived CTL and tumor cells in vaccinated patients

 


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FIGURE 3. Frequency of successful expansion of MA-specific TIL from FNA biopsies obtained from five melanoma patients undergoing MA-specific vaccination. Cultures were generated by a single in vitro stimulation of FNA material with the same peptide used as vaccine (1 µM tyrosinase, MART-1, g209-2M, g280-9V) and tested for specificity by IFN-{gamma} ELISA against T2 cells pulsed with relevant and irrelevant peptides. IFN-{gamma} release is reported in picograms per milliliter, and values double the background and >100 pg/ml were considered positive.

 
Vaccine-specific TIL were tested for recognition of autologous tumor (when available) and/or HLA-A*0201 matched melanoma cells (Table VIGo). TIL elicited with the modified g209 and g280 peptides could recognize the epitope used for the vaccination, autologous tumor (when available) or HLA-A*0201-matched melanoma cells. Recognition of autologous tumor could not be easily explained for gp100-specific TIL because in some instances phenotypic characterization of the autologous cell lines revealed good expression of HLA class I alleles but severely decreased expression gp100 (Table VIIGo). It is possible that the limited number of cells expressing gp100 could still induce release of IFN-{gamma} by the TIL. Alternatively, T cells specific for other MA might have been included in the TIL populations. "Concomitant expansion" of T cells nonspecific for the stimulus applied in culture was noted in KAe-2 g209-2M TIL. This TIL, although induced by g209-2M stimulation, demonstrated a predominance of MART-1-specific CD8+ T cells (Fig. 4Go). Evidently, T cells of various specificity present in high frequency in the original FNA material might expand independently from the specific stimulus applied in culture because of the general stimulatory conditions provided ex vivo.


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Table VI. IFN-{gamma} (pg/ml) secretion by epitope-induced TIL cultures1

 

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Table VII. HLA expression and MA expression in autologous tumor cell lines derived from FNA of vaccinated patients determined by FACS analysis1

 


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FIGURE 4. tHLA-staining epitope-specific T cells simultaneously derived from PBMC and TIL in patient KA. g209-2M- and MART-1-specific TIL were derived from patient KA FNA of the R Th metastasis (Table VGo) obtained after two epitope-specific vaccinations. KAe-2 MART-1 and KAe-2 g209-2M were expanded in vitro after stimulation with autologous PBMC pulsed with MART-1 and g209-2M peptide, respectively. KAe-2 PBMC MART-1 and KAe-2 PBMC g209-2M are cultures derived from epitope-specific in vitro stimulation of PBMC obtained from apheresis at the same time of the FNA (post-second vaccination). T cells (2 x 105/50 µl volume) were stained with 1 µg g209, g209-2M, and MART-1 tHLA; 50,000 events were acquired for PBMC and TIL cultures.

 
TIL developed with the natural MART-1 epitope appeared to recognize both autologous tumor and HLA-matched melanoma cells. Although concomitant expansion of CD8+ T cells specific for an epitope not used for stimulation (KAe-4 recognizing g280 and g280-9V) was noted, recognition of autologous tumor was due most likely to MART-1-reactive TIL because the tumor did not express gp100. The predominance of MART-1-specific T cells in KAe-2 TIL prevailed on the expansion of T cells characterized by other specificity independently from the stimulus applied in culture and persisted in time long after the vaccination as demonstrated by KA, R Th obtained several months after the end of the vaccination protocol (Table IGo and Fig. 1Go).

Epitope-specific reactivity in TIL is demonstrable only in association with enhanced systemic T cell responses to vaccination

Analysis of the local response to vaccination was compared with the systemic response in simultaneously obtained PBMC. Four of five PBMC cultures could generate 209-2M or 280-9V-specific T cells after two vaccinations and three of five were reactive to MART-1 (Fig. 5Go). Postvaccination, MA-specific TIL could be elicited only in patients that also demonstrated enhanced systemic reactivity toward the same epitope. Detection of vaccine-specific immune reactivity in peripheral blood lymphocytes did not correspond always to the presence of vaccine-reactive TIL. These data suggest that development of systemic immunoreactivity toward the vaccine is necessary but not sufficient for the localization of immune responses at the tumor site. Flu reactivity was present in PBMC cultures from five of five patients with no significant pre- and postvaccination differences. In patient MK, no vaccine-specific T cell could be induced from PBMC or from FNA material, but it was possible to induce Flu-reactive T cells from PBMC, suggesting that this patient was not immunocompromised.



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FIGURE 5. Frequency of successful expansion of MA-specific TIL from FNA biopsies and PBMC obtained from five melanoma patients pre- and post-MA-specific vaccination. Cultures were generated by a single in vitro stimulation of FNA material (plus irradiated autologous PBMC) and PBMC with the same peptide used as vaccine (1 µM tyrosinase, MART-1, g209-2M, g280-9V) and tested for specificity by IFN-{gamma} ELISA against T2 cells pulsed with relevant and irrelevant peptides. IFN-{gamma} release is reported in picograms per milliliter, and values double the background and >100 pg/ml were considered positive. Different symbols represent the five different patients studied. •, patient KA; {circ}, patient WW; {blacktriangleup}, patient MC; {triangleup}, patient MK; {blacksquare}, patient CD.

 
Although serial determinations of tumor size could be collected, there were equivocal patterns of response in the lesion followed so that no conclusive clinical correlation could be made. In some cases, lack of response could be attributed to poor recognition of natural epitope or to loss of target Ag. However, in other cases, TIL recognizing autologous tumor could be demonstrated and yet the tumor did not regress during therapy (Table VGo). This once again suggests that variables other than those evaluable by direct confrontation of autologous tumor-T cell pairs should be considered to explain their coexistence in vivo.


    Discussion
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
FNA is a technique characterized by minimal morbidity that is commonly applied for the diagnosis of cancer (37). Pathological and immunological information obtained by FNA has been shown to have sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy similar to that of frozen sections (16, 38). The FNA technique does not permanently affect the architecture of the aspirated lesion because it is characterized by minimal disruption of tissues (39). Generally, however, FNA material has not been used for applications other than the accrual of diagnostic information. In this study, we evaluated the possibility of developing reagents from FNA that are traditionally obtained from excised surgical specimens. There are two main advantages of obtaining such reagents with FNA aspiration rather than by excisional biopsy: FNA allows prospective assessment of lesions and repeated sampling of the same lesion. In particular, we evaluated the feasibility to expand TIL and/or tumor cells from lesions, with the theoretical advantage that by leaving the tumor in place, the subsequent history could be followed. Additionally, repeated FNA could be performed within the same lesions that could yield descriptive information about events occurring during cancer progression.

The original expectation of these studies was to identify lesions characterized by different clinical behavior and correlate such behaviors with data obtained from the functional characterization of tumor cells and/or TIL expanded from the same lesions. Lack of dramatic responses in the lesions studied and the complexity of the information obtained limited the ability to make definitive conclusions about conditions determining treatment outcome in this study. Furthermore, this study underlined the complexity of the dynamic analysis of tumor-host interactions. Loss of MA expression occurring in cell lines in correlation with culture passages does not have a definite explanation and it is not clear whether, during in vitro culture, more anaplastic cells with a dedifferentiated phenotype have a selective growth advantage. In general, however, MA expression and in particular gp100 expression was lower even in the original FNA materials compared with previous experiences (13), perhaps as a consequence of the previous Ag-specific treatments received by the patients.

An interesting observation was the identification of TIL capable of recognizing autologous and HLA class I-matched tumors. These TIL have a memory phenotype characterized by predominant expression of the CD45RO marker (Table IIGo). However, this cannot in itself prove their true origin from cancer-populating T cells inasmuch as this phenotype have been identified also in PBMC of melanoma patients (40). However, the expansion of T cell cultures from FNA with the addition of IL-2 alone that could recognize tumor targets in an HLA-restricted fashion suggests that their origin was likely from TIL rather than blood contaminating the FNA material. It was also possible to induce more easily vaccine-specific TIL after vaccination than before. This, of course, does not exclude that more sensitive methods of induction could have detected TIL specific for these MA also in prevaccination specimens as previously observed (41, 42). Vaccine-specific TIL could be expanded at the tumor site only when systemic responses could be simultaneously noted. Thus, the observation of vaccine-specific TIL could in theory represent only an artifact due to the in vitro expansion of passenger T cells in peripheral blood contaminating the FNA aspirate material. Such a possibility cannot be totally excluded. On the other hand, two observations suggest that the T cells expanded represented genuine TIL residing in the tumor: 1) it was difficult to expand Flu CTL from the FNA, whereas we have previously shown that it is extremely easy to expand Flu-specific CTL from PBMC cultures in patients with melanoma (36); 2) the concomitant expansion of T cells recognizing other MA in response to stimulation with one epitope suggests a precursor frequency of MA-specific TIL superior to the one expected in PBMC (Table VIGo). Indeed we have never noted concomitant expansion of non-epitope-driven MA-specific CTL in PBMC cultures (data not shown).

This study proposes an alternative view of tumor monitoring in which events are analyzed at the tumor site where they are most relevant. The major limitation of this approach is the limited amount of material obtainable and the necessity for expansion of TIL and tumor cells for functional studies to be compared with information collected by IHC of remaining aliquots of the same FNA. It can be foreseen that in the future new technologies may be applied to allow extensive analyses of materials from small samples. Distinct populations of cells could be sorted by microdissection (43, 44) or epitope-HLA tetramers (14, 34), and their status of activation could be directly tested by sensitive methodologies such as Taqman-based real time RT-PCR (45) or intracellular FACS analysis (46). Collection of cDNA libraries from FNA of metastases could profile patterns of expression of thousands of genes in a single experiment (47). More recently, the expansion of tHLA-sorted T cell lines after a primary expansion has been proposed (48), which may lead to a higher yield of epitope-specific TIL from FNA. This information, combined with knowledge of the natural history of the lesion left in situ, might yield clinical material for correlation of laboratory findings with clinical outcome and identification of the algorithm necessary for tumor regression.


    Footnotes
 
1 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. F. M. Marincola, Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, Building 10, Room 2B42, 10 Center Drive MSC 1502, Bethesda, MD 20892-1502. E-mail address: Back

2 Abbreviations used in this paper: MA, melanoma Ag; FNA, fine needle aspirate; IHC, immunocytochemistry; TIL, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes; tHLA, soluble MHC-peptide tetramer; MART-1, MART-1:27–35(AAGIGILTV); g209-2M, gp100:209–217 (IMDQVPFSV); g280-9V, gp100:280–288(YLEPGPVTV); tyrosinase, tyrosinase:368–376 (YMDGTMSQV); IM, Iscove’s medium; L, ligand. Back

Received for publication May 6, 1999. Accepted for publication October 8, 1999.


    References
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 

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