scholarly journals Multi-Compartment Lymph-Node-on-a-Chip Enables Measurement of Immune Cell Motility in Response to Drugs

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hallfors ◽  
Aya Shanti ◽  
Jiranuwat Sapudom ◽  
Jeremy Teo ◽  
Georg Petroianu ◽  
...  

Organs On-a-Chip represent novel platforms for modelling human physiology and disease. The lymph node (LN) is a relevant immune organ in which B and T lymphocytes are spatially organized in a complex architecture, and it is the place where the immune response initiates. The present study addresses the utility of a recently designed LN-on-a-chip to dissect and understand the effect of drugs delivered to cells in a fluidic multicellular 3D setting that mimics the human LN. To do so, we analyzed the motility and viability of human B and T cells exposed to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). We show that the innovative LN platform, which operates at a microscale level, allows real-time monitoring of co-cultured B and T cells by imaging, and supports cellular random movement. HCQ delivered to cells through a constant and continuous flow induces a reduction in T cell velocity while promotes persistent rotational motion. We also find that HCQ increases the production of reactive oxygen species in T cells. Taken together, these results highlight the potential of the LN-on-a-chip to be applied in drug screening and development, and in cellular dynamics studies.

2020 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Noah ◽  
Thomas M. Li ◽  
Leandro M. Martinez ◽  
Susumu Wada ◽  
Jacob B. Swanson ◽  
...  

Tendon injuries are a common clinical condition with limited treatment options. The cellular components of the innate immune system, such as neutrophils and macrophages, have been studied in tendon injuries. However, the adaptive immune system, comprising specialized lymphocytes, plays an important role in orchestrating the healing of numerous tissues, but less is known about these cells in tendon healing. To gain a greater understanding of the biological processes that regulate tendon healing, we determined how the cellular components of the adaptive and innate immune system respond to a tendon injury using two-month-old male mice. We observed that lymphatic vasculature is present in the epitenon and superficial regions of Achilles tendons, and that the lymphatics drain into the popliteal lymph node. We then created an acute Achilles tenotomy followed by repair, and collected tendons and popliteal lymph nodes 1, 2, and 4 wk after injury. Tendon injury resulted in a robust adaptive immune cell response that followed an initial innate immune cell response in tendons and lymph nodes. Monocytes, neutrophils, and macrophages initially accumulated at 1 wk after injury in tendons, while dendritic cells and CD4+ T cells peaked at 2 wk after injury. B cells and CD8+ T cells progressively increased over time. In parallel, immune cells of the popliteal lymph node demonstrated a similarly coordinated response to the injury. These results suggest that there is an adaptive immune response to tendon injury, and adaptive immune cells may play a role in regulating tendon healing. NEW & NOTEWORTHY While the innate immune system, consisting of macrophages and related hematopoietic cells, has been studied in tendon injury, less is known about the adaptive immune system. Using a mouse model of Achilles tendon tenotomy and repair, we observed an adaptive immune cell response, consisting of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and B cells, which occur through 4 wk after tendon injury. This response appeared to be coordinated by the draining popliteal lymph node.


Lab on a Chip ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (19) ◽  
pp. 3728-3740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrícia Moura Rosa ◽  
Nimi Gopalakrishnan ◽  
Hany Ibrahim ◽  
Markus Haug ◽  
Øyvind Halaas

A microfluidic approach for analyzing and exploiting immune cell : cell contact communication in a lymph node-on-a-chip.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 343-350
Author(s):  
Hisato Yoshida ◽  
Yoshiaki Imamura ◽  
Hitoshi Yoshimura ◽  
Motohiro Kobayashi

Lichen planus (LP) is a chronic inflammatory mucocutaneous disease involving the oral mucosa and skin. Both oral LP (OLP) and cutaneous LP (CLP) are histopathologically characterized by dense subepithelial lymphocyte infiltrates; however, the mechanisms underlying lymphocyte recruitment to sites of LP lesions are not fully understood. Here, we assessed the induction of peripheral lymph node addressin (PNAd)-expressing high endothelial venule (HEV)-like vessels in 19 OLP and 17 CLP cases. To do so, we performed immunohistochemical staining for PNAd and CD34, followed by quantitative analysis. We also conducted triple immunohistochemistry for PNAd and either CD3 and CD20 or CD4 and CD8 to identify the lymphocyte subset preferentially recruited via HEV-like vessels. PNAd-expressing HEV-like vessels were induced in and around lymphocyte aggregates in all cases of OLP and in 10 of 17 CLP cases, and these vessels were more frequently observed in OLP relative to CLP. Although the number of T-cells attached per HEV-like vessel exceeded the number of B-cells in both OLP and CLP, the number of CD4+ T-cells attached was greater than the number of CD8+ T-cells only in OLP. These findings combined suggest that PNAd-expressing HEV-like vessels play a more important role in the pathogenesis of OLP compared with CLP.


Diseases ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Niko Hiltunen ◽  
Juha P. Väyrynen ◽  
Jan Böhm ◽  
Olli Helminen

The role of inflammation in neuroendocrine tumors is poorly known. The purpose of this study was to characterize the densities of CD3+, CD8+, CD4+ and FOXP3+ T cells in small bowel neuroendocrine tumors (SB-NETs), SB-NET lymph node metastases and gastric neuroendocrine tumors (G-NETs) to assess the prognostic role of immune cell infiltrates in SB-NETs. The final cohort included 113 SB-NETs, 75 SB-NET lymph node metastases and 19 G-NETs from two Finnish hospitals. CD3+- and CD8+-based immune cell score (ICS), and other T cell densities were evaluated. Survival analyses of SB-NETs and SB-NET lymph node metastases were performed with the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression adjusted for confounders. The primary outcome was disease-specific survival (DSS). No significant difference in DSS was seen between low and high ICS groups in SB-NETs at 5 years (92.6% vs. 87.8%) or 10 years (53.8% vs. 79.4%), p = 0.507, or in SB-NET lymph node metastases at 5 years (88.9% vs. 90.4%) or 10 years (71.1% vs. 59.8%), p = 0.466. Individual densities of the examined T cell types showed no correlation with prognosis either. SB-NETs and lymph node metastases had similar inflammatory cell profiles, whereas in G-NETs CD3+ and CD8+ T cells were particularly more abundant. In SB-NETs, ICS or T cell densities showed no correlation with prognosis.


Author(s):  
Lu Yuan ◽  
Xixi Wu ◽  
Longshan Zhang ◽  
Mi Yang ◽  
Xiaoqing Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractPulmonary surfactant protein A1 (SFTPA1) is a member of the C-type lectin subfamily that plays a critical role in maintaining lung tissue homeostasis and the innate immune response. SFTPA1 disruption can cause several acute or chronic lung diseases, including lung cancer. However, little research has been performed to associate SFTPA1 with immune cell infiltration and the response to immunotherapy in lung cancer. The findings of our study describe the SFTPA1 expression profile in multiple databases and was validated in BALB/c mice, human tumor tissues, and paired normal tissues using an immunohistochemistry assay. High SFTPA1 mRNA expression was associated with a favorable prognosis through a survival analysis in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) samples from TCGA. Further GeneOntology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses showed that SFTPA1 was involved in the toll-like receptor signaling pathway. An immune infiltration analysis clarified that high SFTPA1 expression was associated with an increased number of M1 macrophages, CD8+ T cells, memory activated CD4+ T cells, regulatory T cells, as well as a reduced number of M2 macrophages. Our clinical data suggest that SFTPA1 may serve as a biomarker for predicting a favorable response to immunotherapy for patients with LUAD. Collectively, our study extends the expression profile and potential regulatory pathways of SFTPA1 and may provide a potential biomarker for establishing novel preventive and therapeutic strategies for lung adenocarcinoma.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3828
Author(s):  
Anello Marcello Poma ◽  
Rossella Bruno ◽  
Iacopo Pietrini ◽  
Greta Alì ◽  
Giulia Pasquini ◽  
...  

Pembrolizumab has been approved as first-line treatment for advanced Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with tumors expressing PD-L1 and in the absence of other targetable alterations. However, not all patients that meet these criteria have a durable benefit. In this monocentric study, we aimed at refining the selection of patients based on the expression of immune genes. Forty-six consecutive advanced NSCLC patients treated with pembrolizumab in first-line setting were enrolled. The expression levels of 770 genes involved in the regulation of the immune system was analysed by the nanoString system. PD-L1 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Patients with durable clinical benefit had a greater infiltration of cytotoxic cells, exhausted CD8, B-cells, CD45, T-cells, CD8 T-cells and NK cells. Immune cell scores such as CD8 T-cell and NK cell were good predictors of durable response with an AUC of 0.82. Among the immune cell markers, XCL1/2 showed the better performance in predicting durable benefit to pembrolizumab, with an AUC of 0.85. Additionally, CD8A, CD8B and EOMES showed a high specificity (>0.86) in identifying patients with a good response to treatment. In the same series, PD-L1 expression levels had an AUC of 0.61. The characterization of tumor microenvironment, even with the use of single markers, can improve patients’ selection for pembrolizumab treatment.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 965
Author(s):  
Selina Hiss ◽  
Markus Eckstein ◽  
Patricia Segschneider ◽  
Konstantinos Mantsopoulos ◽  
Heinrich Iro ◽  
...  

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the number of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and the expression of Programmed Cell Death 1 Ligand 1 (PD-L1) in Acinic Cell Carcinoma (AciCC) of the salivary glands, to enable a correlation with clinico-pathological features and to analyse their prognostic impact. Methods: This single centre retrospective study represents a cohort of 36 primary AciCCs with long-term clinical follow-up. Immunohistochemically defined immune cell subtypes, i.e., those expressing T-cell markers (CD3, CD4 and CD8) or a B-cell marker (CD20) were characterized on tumour tissue sections. The number of TILs was quantitatively evaluated using software for digital bioimage analysis (QuPath). PD-L1 expression on the tumour cells and on immune cells was assessed immunohistochemically employing established scoring criteria: tumour proportion score (TPS), Ventana immune cell score (IC-Score) and combined positive score (CPS). Results: Higher numbers of tumour-infiltrating T- and B- lymphocytes were significantly associated with high-grade transformation. Furthermore, higher counts of T-lymphocytes correlated with node-positive disease. There was a significant correlation between higher levels of PD-L1 expression and lymph node metastases as well as the occurrence of high-grade transformation. Moreover, PD-L1 CPS was associated with poor prognosis regarding metastasis-free survival (p = 0.049). Conclusions: The current study is the first to demonstrate an association between PD-L1 expression and lymph node metastases as well as grading in AciCCs. In conclusion, increased immune cell infiltration of T and B cells as well as higher levels of PD-L1 expression in AciCC in association with high-grade transformation, lymph node metastasis and unfavourable prognosis suggests a relevant interaction between tumour cells and immune cell infiltrates in a subset of AciCCs, and might represent a rationale for immune checkpoint inhibition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A795-A795
Author(s):  
Hyeonbin Cho ◽  
Jae-Hwan Kim ◽  
Ji-Hyun Kim

BackgroundCancer immunotherapy (CIT) has substantially improved the survival of cancer patients. However, according to recent studies, liver metastasis was reported to predict worse outcomes for CIT. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the differences in the immune microenvironment (IME) between the primary lung cancer (PL) and synchronous liver metastasis (LM) using a multispectral imaging system.MethodsSix immune markers (CD4, CD8, CTLA-4, granzyme B (GZB), Foxp3 and PD-L1) were analyzed using a multiplex IHC system and inForm program (Akoya) on paired lung-liver samples of 10 patients. Cells were categorized into tumor nest and stroma, and cell counts per unit area were measured for comparison.ResultsThe number of tumor-infiltrating cytotoxic T cells (TIL) in PL (262.5 cells/mm2) was higher than that of LM (113.3 cells/mm2). Additionally, the ratio between the number of TIL and non-TIL was greater in PL (0.31) compared to that of LM (0.26). A similar trend appeared for Helper T cells and regulatory T cells (Treg), as PL consisted of higher numbers of T cells (791.8 Helper T cells/mm2, 195.7 Treg/mm2) than LM (626.3 Helper T cells/mm2, 121.3 Treg/mm2). However, cytotoxic T cells exhibiting GZB+ and CTLA-4- were fewer in PL (140.2 cells/mm2) than in LM (203.3 cells/mm2), and the ratio is 0.69. The mean number of GZB+ TIL in PL (32.5 cells/mm2) was lower than in LM (35.3 cells/mm2), and their proportions among total TIL counts were 0.12 and 0.31, respectively. In PL, GZB+: GZB- ratio is 0.16 while the ratio is 1.91 for LM. A fewer number of TILs exhibiting GZB suggests that PL has lower efficiency in immune response than LM. Another crucial checkpoint receptor that inhibits immune response, CTLA-4, was more prevalent in PL, with CTLA-4+: CTLA-4- ratio in Treg being 0.36 in PL, compared to 0.11 in LM. The tumor proportion score (TPS) of PD-L1 was higher in PL than LM (40.0 vs. 6.6).ConclusionsIn our study, we showed the differences in the numbers of TIL or regulatory T cells and expressions of immune checkpoint receptors (PD-L1, CTLA-4), which significantly influence outcomes for CIT. The study is ongoing to confirm different IME between the PL and LM groups in a larger tumor cohort.ReferencesPeng, Jianhong, et al., Immune Cell Infiltration in the Microenvironment of Liver Oligometastasis from Colorectal Cancer: Intratumoural CD8/CD3 Ratio Is a Valuable Prognostic Index for Patients Undergoing Liver Metastasectomy. Cancers 2019 Dec; 11(12): 1922. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers11121922Tumeh, Paul C., et al., Liver Metastasis and treatment outcome with Anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody in patients with melanoma and NSCLC. Cancer Immunol Res 2017 May; 5(5): 417–424. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-16-0325Parra, E.R., Immune Cell Profiling in Cancer Using Multiplex Immunofluorescence and Digital Analysis Approaches; Streckfus, C.F., Ed.; IntechOpen: London, UK, 2018; pp. 1–13. doi: 10.5772/intechopen.80380Ribas, A., Hu-Lieskovan, S., What does PD-L1 positive or negative mean?. The Journal of Experimental Medicine 2016;213(13):2835–2840. https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20161462


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