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Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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In addition to the possible benefits of FR hyperthermia on infectious diseases, a mild temperature, long duration (i.e., FR) whole body hyperthermia (WBH) protocol has been found to significantly improve antitumor effects of chemotherapeutics (9) and, by itself, delay tumor growth and metastases (10, 11) without the toxicity to normal tissues that higher temperature protocols engender (12, 13). Preclinical studies such as these have led to the clinical use of FR-WBH, where the safety of this protocol has been assured (Ref. 14 and W. G. Kraybill, T. Olenki, S. S. Evans, J. R. Ostberg, K. A. OLeary, J. Gibbs, and E. A. Repasky, manuscript in preparation), and trials maximizing the efficacy of this treatment in combination with other therapies in malignant disease are presently underway.
As alluded to above, one possible mechanism by which FR-WBH exerts its antitumor effects is by stimulating immune responses. Indeed, the origins of hyperthermia as a cancer treatment modality are correlatively linked with some of the earliest immunotherapy literature, since it has been recognized that the bacterial toxins given to cancer patients to stimulate their immune systems also resulted in strong fever responses (15). To maximize any potential clinical benefits, it is now critical to completely understand the molecular and immunological mechanisms by which febrile temperatures affect immune responses and antitumor activity. Thus, we decided to characterize the effects of FR-WBH on a classical Ag-dependent cellular immune reaction, the contact hypersensitivity (CHS) response.
| Materials and Methods |
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BALB/c female mice (8- to 10-wk old; Taconic Laboratories, Germantown, PA) were used in all experiments with age-matched controls. All protocols involving these mice were approved by the Roswell Park Institute Animal Care and Use Committee.
CHS reaction
Mice were sensitized with 400 µl of 0.5% FITC in a 1:1 solution of acetone:dibutyl phthalate on the shaved abdomen. Mock-sensitized animals were treated with 400 µl of the acetone:dibutyl phthalate solution alone. Six days later, baseline ear thickness was measured with Quick Mini thickness-gauge calipers (Mitutoyo, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan) and ear swelling responses were elicited with application of 10 µl of the same FITC solution to both the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the ear. Changes in ear thickness compared with baseline were recorded at 6.5, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 72 h after elicitation of the response.
FR-WBH
To prevent dehydration, mice were injected with 1 ml of
nonpyrogenic saline i.p. immediately before being placed in
microisolator cages preheated to 38.8°C. The cages (
5 mice per
cage) were then placed in an environmental chamber with preheated fresh
air (Memmert model BE500; Memmert, East Troy, WI). Within 20
min, the average core body temperatures of the mice were raised from
37.5°C (normal core temperature of mice) to 39.540°C, and this
body temperature was maintained for 6 h by adjusting the
temperature of the environmental chamber. Core temperatures were
monitored with the Electronic Laboratory Animal Monitoring System from
Biomedic Data Systems (Maywood, NJ) using nonexperimental BALB/c mice
that had 14 x 2.2-mm microchip transponders s.c. implanted into
the dorsal thoracic area. Variations in temperature readings between
animals are reproducibly within 0.2°C of the mean. Control mice were
kept at room temperature and subjected to the same manipulations as
that of the heated mice. All experiments were started at approximately
the same time each day (7:309:30 a.m.) to avoid the possible
influence of diurnal cycling.
Flow cytometric analysis
Cells (510 x 105) were washed with
PBS and 200-µl suspensions were then incubated on ice with either of
the following mAbs: 0.1 µg of R35-95 (rat IgG2a isotype control), 0.1
µg of RA3-6B2 (rat IgG2a anti-CD45R/B220), 0.1 µg of 53-2.1
(rat IgG2a anti-CD90.2/Thy 1.2), or 0.2 µg of 2.4G2
(anti-CD16/CD32 (Fc
III/IIR); BD PharMingen, San Diego, CA).
Those samples incubated with the rat mAbs were then washed before
blocking with 5% normal goat serum (Life Technologies,
Grand Island, NY) followed by incubation with 0.2 µg of
PE-conjugated polyclonal goat anti-rat Ig (BD PharMingen). Those
samples blocked with the anti-Fc
III/IIR mAb were incubated with
0.02 µg of either PE-conjugated RB6-8C5 (anti-CD11c/integrin
x chain) or PE-conjugated HL3 (anti-CD11b/integrin
M chain). All samples were washed before fixing in 1x
PBS containing 2% paraformaldehyde. Samples were then run within
36 h on a FACScan (BD Immunocytometry Systems, San Jose, CA), and
two parameter histograms of FITC vs PE were analyzed using Winlist 2.01
software (Verity Software House, Topsham, ME).
Proliferation assays
Using round-bottom 96-well tissue culture plates, 2 x 105 inguinal lymph node (LN) cells were incubated at 37°C in 5% CO2 in a 200-µl final volume of RPMI 1640 medium, 10% FCS/well with or without 50 µg/ml FITC, or with 10 µg/ml PHA as positive control. On the third day of culture, 1 µCi of [3H]thymidine in 20 µl of RPMI 1640 medium, 10% FCS was added per well, and plates were harvested 68 h later using the Harvester 96 Mach III M (Tomtec, Hamden, CT). The glass fiber filtermats (Wallac, Turku, Finland) were allowed to dry, sealed with 5 ml of scintillation fluid in a MicroBeta sample bag (Wallac), and then counted using the 1450 MicroBeta Trilux Liquid Scintillation and Luminescence Counter (Wallac). The change in cpm (delta cpm) was calculated as the difference between those cell cultures that were incubated with medium alone and those that were incubated with FITC.
Statistical analysis
Unpaired Students t tests were used to compare the values of room temperature controls to that of WBH-treated mice at each time point. Values of p < 0.05 were considered to represent statistically significant differences.
| Results |
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The CHS reaction involves the exposure of epidermal cells to
haptens, where later challenge with the same hapten results in a
delayed-type hypersensitivity response that can be measured. For these
studies, core body temperatures of mice were raised to 39.540°C for
6 h either directly before or after the application of either the
sensitizing or eliciting dose of FITC solution, and ear swelling
responses were compared with those of room temperature control mice. No
significant effect of FR-WBH was observed on the ear
swelling response when the hyperthermia treatment occurred either
directly after application of the sensitizing dose of FITC or before
the application of the eliciting dose of FITC (Fig. 1
, B and C).
Treatment with FR-WBH directly before the mice were sensitized to the
FITC solution resulted in a decreased ear swelling response (Fig. 1
A). This result is comparable to that obtained with a
microwave-induced, nonphysiological, high temperature
(41.5°C) hyperthermia protocol applied directly before sensitization
with oxazolone as hapten in CHS studies performed by Roszkowski et al.
(16, 17). In contrast, FR-WBH treatment directly after
application of the eliciting dose of FITC resulted in enhanced kinetics
of the ear swelling response (Fig. 1
D). This enhancement in
ear swelling during the earlier time points of the response occurred in
an Ag-dependent manner, as FR-WBH treatment of the mock-sensitized mice
at any time did not induce any ear swelling responses.
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The Langerhans cells, which are the dendritic cells (DCs) of the
skin, are the critical APCs in the CHS response, initiating
sensitization to haptens by presenting Ags to T cells
(18). Thus, to dissect the mechanism by which FR-WBH
treatment decreased the CHS response as shown in Fig. 1
A,
the ability of the FITC+ Langerhans cells to
migrate to the draining LNs of the abdomen, where they would then
encounter a large pool of T cells, was analyzed. Interestingly, when
WBH treatment was performed directly before application of the
sensitization dose, fewer numbers of FITC+ cells
were observed in confocal microscopic analysis of compressed inguinal
LNs compared with RT controls at 1 and 2 days after sensitization (data
not shown). Using flow cytometric analysis, 80% or more of the total
number of FITC+ cells were also positive for the
marker CD11b, which represents both myeloid-derived DC (e.g.,
Langerhans cells) and monocytes/macrophagesboth of which can
act as APCs (19). A smaller percentage of the
FITC+ cells are positive for the DC-specific
marker CD11c (19). The remaining percentage of
FITC+ cells appear to be
Thy1+ and we suspect are representative of
Thy1+ epidermal T cells that have also left the
skin for the draining LN. It is the numbers of
FITC+CD11b+ and
FITC+CD11c+ cells, but not
the FITC+Thy1+ cells, that
were decreased by FR-WBH pretreatment (Fig. 2
A and data not shown).
Furthermore, the FITC-specific proliferative responses of the inguinal
LN cells were also decreased when mice were pretreated with FR-WBH
(Fig. 3
). FR-WBH pretreatment did
not affect the polyclonal stimulation of inguinal LN cells with PHA
(data not shown). Thus, it appears that the general trafficking of DCs
from the epithelium to the draining LNs was altered by FR-WBH
pretreatment in a manner that prevented normal sensitization to the
FITC hapten. Interestingly, when FR-WBH was applied directly after
sensitization, there were increased numbers of
FITC+CD11b+ cells in the
draining LN compared with controls (Fig. 2
B). However, as
with the ear swelling response (Fig. 1
B), no effects were
seen on the FITC-specific proliferative responses of inguinal LN cells
when FR-WBH was applied after application of the sensitizing dose of Ag
(data not shown).
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In contrast to the inhibitory effects of FR-WBH pretreatment
before sensitization (Fig. 1
A), we were also interested in
determining potential mechanisms by which FR-WBH treatment directly
after FITC challenge was able to enhance the CHS response as shown in
Fig. 1
D. When H&E cross-sections of the ears were analyzed,
significantly enlarged blood vessels were transiently observed directly
after a 6-h WBH treatment (Fig. 4
, B and
D). This is not surprising,
for vasodilation is a common physiological response to overheating.
However, heat-induced vasodilation could not be solely responsible for
the increased ear swelling responses, as FR-WBH treatment was not
sufficient to induce ear swelling in mock-sensitized mice (Figs. 1
D and 4D).
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To determine the effects of FR-WBH treatment on lymphocyte
localization to the ear, microscopic analysis of H&E cross-sections of
the ear were analyzed for numbers of lymphocytes in the blood vessels
of the ear. Within the blood vessels, it was easy to identify
lymphocytes based on morphology. FR-WBH treatment directly after
application of the eliciting Ag resulted in significantly increased
numbers of lymphocytes per ear in the blood vessels of the ear (Fig. 5
). In contrast, significantly decreased
numbers of total cells (Fig. 6
A), specifically
Thy1+ T lymphocytes (Fig. 6
B), were
observed in the ear draining LNs of WBH-treated mice. These
observations suggest that application of FR-WBH during the elicitation
response enhances the homing of Ag-specific T cells to the
inflammatory site.
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| Discussion |
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When considering the apparent stimulatory effect of FR-WBH alone on
Langerhans cells both in vivo and in vitro (20), as well
as its ability to enhance the numbers of FITC+
APCs in the draining LN (Fig. 2
B), it is surprising that WBH
treatment directly after sensitization does not enhance the CHS
response (Fig. 1
B). We first hypothesized that, within the
5- or 6-day lag between sensitization and elicitation, the kinetics of
DC stimulation of LN T cells might have reached a plateau so that room
temperature controls were able to "catch up" to any enhancement
that occurred with FR-WBH treatment after sensitization. However,
Ag-specific proliferative responses of inguinal LN cells collected only
3 days after sensitization did not appear to be increased by FR-WBH
treatment directly after sensitization (data not shown). Thus, we now
hypothesize that these results most likely reflect the inability of
FR-WBH to enhance the already strong sensitizing capacity of the hapten
acetone: dibutyl phthalate stimulus.
Although the ability of FR-WBH to affect DCs may be responsible for its
inhibitory effects when applied directly before sensitization, it
appears that the ability of this same treatment modality to affect
lymphocytes plays a large role in its stimulatory effects when applied
directly after challenge. Upon challenge with the eliciting dose of
FITC, the hapten-specific part of the CHS response corresponds to the
activation of hapten-specific primed T cells and occurs within
6 h
(18). These T cells release chemokines which cause the
skin to be infiltrated by neutrophils, resulting in a maximal ear
swelling response that peaks
24 h after challenge (18).
The ability of FR-WBH treatment to enhance the ear swelling response
between 6 and 12 h after challenge suggests that it is the
hapten-specific phase of the response that is most directly affected by
the hyperthermia treatment. The data described here suggesting the
ability of FR-WBH to influence Ag-specific T lymphocyte homing (Fig. 2
)
are also supported by previous reports that describe the ability of FR
hyperthermia to enhance L-selectin and integrin-mediated adhesion of
lymphocytes to vascular endothelium (21, 22). Thus, it
appears that the ability of FR-WBH to alter lymphocyte trafficking
results in the capacity of this treatment to increase early
responsiveness to Ag challenge.
Based on the results of this study, we are interested in further
evaluating the ability of FR hyperthermia to regulate both lymphocyte
and epidermal Langerhans cell maturation- or activation-dependent
migration. As inflammatory cytokines may play a role in this cell
migration, it is important to note that this FR-WBH treatment alone
does not induce systemic levels of IL-1
, IL-6, or TNF-
in mouse
sera (23). However, WBH may induce changes in the local
levels of cytokine production (e.g., in the skin microenvironment where
Ag is applied). Future studies are presently underway to address these
issues.
Regardless of the mechanism of action, it is clear that FR hyperthermia has a largely underappreciated capacity to regulate Ag-dependent immune responses. Studies such as ours illustrate the feasibility of harnessing the thermal element of fever to drive the desired immune response, whether it is inhibitory, in the case of autoimmunity or inflammatory disease, or stimulatory, in the case of malignant or infectious disease.
| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Julie R. Ostberg, Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm and Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263. E-mail address: Julie.Ostberg{at}RoswellPark.org ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: FR, fever range; WBH, whole body hyperthermia; CHS, contact hypersensitivity; LN, lymph node; DC, dendritic cell. ![]()
Received for publication March 13, 2001. Accepted for publication July 8, 2001.
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