Fig. 2: Antigen-specific killing persists in the absence of tumor MHC-I.
From: CD8+ T cells maintain killing of MHC-I-negative tumor cells through the NKG2D–NKG2DL axis
a, Absolute counts of tumor-specific TRP2 CD8+ T cells per gram of tumor from C57BL/6 mice bearing either i.c. CT2A-TRP2 or CT2A-TRP2-β2mKO tumors. Mice were implanted with CT2A-TRP2-β2mKO or CT2A-TRP2 tumors i.c. and then treated with i.p. αPD-1/4-1BB at day 18. Tumors were then collected 24 h later, dissociated, stained for the TRP2 tetramer and assessed by flow cytometry (n = 5 mice per group). Data are from one of two independent experiments with similar results. Data are shown as mean ± s.e.m. b, Schematic of the experimental design. c,d, Kaplan–Meier survival curves of CD8+ T cell global KO mice (CD8KO) implanted i.c. with CT2A-TRP2-β2mKO (n = 5 mice per group) (c) or CT2A-β2mKO (lacking TRP2 expression) (n = 5 mice per group) (d) tumors. Mice were treated with 10 × 106 TRP2 TCR-engineered T cells on day 7, followed by i.p. αPD-1/4-1BB therapy or vehicle control. e, Kaplan–Meier survival curve of OT-1 mice implanted with CT2A-TRP2-β2mKO tumors, which do not express the OVA antigen, creating a model with few to no tumor-specific T cells present (n = 5 mice per group). The P value for a was calculated with one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s test. Survival in c–e was assessed by the two-sided Gehan–Breslow–Wilcoxon test.
