Fig. 8: CD8+ T cells depletion experiments and ex vivo analysis of immune cells.
a Primary (*p = 0.0345, ***p = 0.0001) and b distant (***p = 0.0001) tumor growth curves of CT26 colorectal bilateral tumor-bearing mice treated with Saline, Saline+RT, H@Gd-NCPs+RT and H@Gd-NCPs+RT + αCD8a, (n = 8 biologically independent animals). [Gd3+] = 30 mg kg−1, [Hemin] =12.5 mg kg−1 and [αCD8a] = 10 mg kg−1. Treatments were performed on days 0 and 6. X-ray radiation therapy was performed 6 h after nanomedicines intravenous injection (black arrow). RT 6 Gy × 2 with fractions delivered 6 days apart and only primary tumors received radiation therapy. Anti-CD8a antibody was treated via intraperitoneal injection 6 h after radiation therapy (red arrow). Data (a, b) were presented as mean ± SEM. c Primary (***p = 0.0001, ***p = 0.0001) and d distant (***p = 0.0001, ***p = 0.0001) CT26 tumor weight (n = 8 biologically independent animals). e, f Growth curves of e primary and f distant individual tumors in the H@Gd-NCPs + RT and H@Gd-NCPs + RT + αCD8a groups. g, h The percentages of CD8+ T cells in the g primary (***p = 0.0001, ***p = 0.0001) and h distant (***p = 0.0002, ***p = 0.0003) tumors analyzed by flow cytometry (n = 6 biologically independent animals). i The percentages of macrophages (F4/80+ and CD11b+) in the primary tumors analyzed by flow cytometry (n = 6 biologically independent animals). Tumor tissues (g–i) in different groups were harvested on day 18 for flow cytometry analysis. Data (c, d, g–i) were presented as mean ± SD. Two-sided Student’s t-test was used to calculate the statistical difference between two groups. N.S. represented non-significance, and *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001. Source data are provided as a Source data file.
