Mangala Srinivas1, Fernando Bonetto2, Erik Aarntzen1, Cornelius JA Punt3, Otto C. Boerman4, Wim J. Oyen4, Pauline Verdijk5, Carl Figdor1, Arend Heerschap6,
1Tumor Immunology, RUNMC, Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands; 2INTEC-CONICET, Argentina; 3Oncology, RUNMC, Netherlands; 4Nuclear Medicine, RUNMC, Netherlands; 5Vaccinology, RIVM, Netherlands; 6Radiology, RUNMC, Netherlands
Dendritic cell (DC) vaccination is an emerging therapy for cancer patients. Injected DCs must migrate to lymph nodes for immunostimulation. However, migration is extremely poor (<4% upon intradermal injection). Expense, logistic and sensitivity issues hinder clinical optimization. Therefore, we developed a quantitative, In Vitro 19F MR-based migration assay using 3D collagen scaffolds and tissue samples, and validate our results using clinical data acquired using scintigraphy on 111In-labeled DCs. We found a strong relationship between migration rates and total cell numbers. We also studied the effect of different components such as cytokines on migration both In Vitro and in the clinic.
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