Fig. 2: Lactate but not glucose promotes antitumor immunity in multiple tumor models.

a Treatment regimen for immunotherapy in combination with glucose (Glc) or lactate (Lac). Glucose (5 g/kg) or lactate (1.68 g/kg) was administrated subcutaneously daily one day after the first dose of anti-PD-1 (aPD1, i.p. injection) or PC7A vaccine (Vax, s.c. injection) treatment. b Tumor growth and survival data of anti-PD-1 combined with glucose or lactate in MC38 tumor model. C57BL/6 mice (n = 6) were inoculated with 1 × 10⁶ MC38 tumor cells and treated with anti-PD-1 (10 mg/kg, day 7 and 10) in combination with glucose or lactate. TF: tumor free. c Tumor growth curves of anti-PD-1 or PC7A vaccine combined with lactate or glucose in TC-1 tumor model. C57BL/6 mice (n = 6) were inoculated with 1.5 × 10⁵ TC-1 tumor cells and treated with anti-PD-1 (10 mg/kg, day 11 and 14) or PC7A vaccine (0.5 μg E7 peptide, day 11, 16) in combination with glucose or lactate. d, Tumor growth curve of anti-PD-1 combined with lactate or glucose in B16F10 tumor model. C57BL/6 mice (n = 6) were inoculated with 1.5 × 10⁵ B16F10 tumor cells and treated with anti-PD-1 (10 mg/kg, day 5 and 8) in combination with glucose or lactate. e CD8⁺ T cell depletion assay in MC38 tumor model. C57BL/6 mice (n = 5) were inoculated with 1 × 10⁶ MC38 tumor cells and treated with anti-PD-1 (10 mg/kg, day 7 and 10) in combination with glucose or lactate. Anti-CD8 (10 mg/kg) was administered at day 6 and then every three days until the end of the experiment. Data are shown as means ± SEM. P-value was determined by logrank test (b) or one-tail two-way ANOVA with correction using Geisser-Greenhouse method (a, b–e). ns: not significant. Source data and summary of all P values are provided in Source Data file.