Fig. 4: Anti-PD-L1/PD-1 response is mediated by CD8⁺ T cells in mouse epithelial cSCCs.

a Experimental scheme for the treatment of mice bearing epithelial, mixed, and mesenchymal cSCCs with 200 µg/dose of IgG isotype control, anti-PD-L1, anti-PD-1, anti-CTLA-4, and anti-TIGIT antibodies, and 300 µg/dose of anti-CD8 and anti-NK1.1 antibodies (i.p. three times/week). All treatments started when engrafted tumors reached a volume of 65 mm³. b Growth kinetics of IgG control, anti-PD-L1, anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1 + anti-CD8, and anti-PD-L1 + anti-NK-treated epithelial cSCCs (n = 10 per group). c–f Percentage of c CD8⁺ T cells, d NK cells, e GzmB⁺ CD8⁺ T cells, and f GzmB⁺ NK cells in the indicated epithelial cSCCs (n = 10 per group). g Growth kinetics of IgG control and anti-CTLA-4-treated epithelial cSCCs (n = 10 per group). h–k Percentage of h CD8⁺ T cells, i NK cells, j GzmB⁺ CD8⁺ T cells, and k GzmB⁺ NK cells in IgG control and anti-CTLA-4-treated epithelial cSCCs (n = 10 per group). l Growth kinetics of IgG control and anti-TIGIT-treated epithelial cSCCs (n = 10 per group). m–p Percentage of m CD8⁺ T cells (n = 10 per group), n NK cells (n = 10 per group), o GzmB⁺ CD8⁺ T cells (n = 7 per group), and p GzmB⁺ NK cells (n = 7 per group) in IgG control and anti-TIGIT-treated epithelial cSCCs. q–s Percentage of GFP⁺EpCAM⁺ and GFP⁺EpCAM⁻ cancer cells in the indicated epithelial cSCCs (n = 10 per group). All data are represented as the mean ± SD, and n values indicate independent tumors. P values are determined by two-way ANOVA test (b, g, l), one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s multiple comparison test (c–f, q), and unpaired two-sided Student’s t-test (h–k, m–p, r, s). ns > 0.05: not significant. See Supplementary Fig. 2 for the gating strategy (c–f, h–k, m–s). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.