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The Marseille Cancer Research Center celebrates its 50th anniversary ! -

Jul 2015 Cancer research

Breast Cancer Cell-Derived GM-CSF Licenses Regulatory Th2 Induction by Plasmacytoid Predendritic Cells in Aggressive Disease Subtypes.

Authors

Ghirelli C, Reyal F, Jeanmougin M, Zollinger R, Sirven P, Michea P, Caux C, Bendriss-Vermare N, Donnadieu MH, Caly M, Fourchotte V, Vincent-Salomon A, Sigal-Zafrani B, Sastre-Garau X, Soumelis V

Summary

Reciprocal interactions between tumor cells and their microenvironment vitally impact tumor progression. In this study, we show that GM-CSF produced by primary breast tumor cells induced the activation of plasmacytoid predendritic cells (pDC), a cell type critical to anti-viral immunity. pDC that expressed the GM-CSF receptor were increased in breast tumors compared with noninvolved adjacent breast tissue. Tumor-activated pDC acquired naïve CD4(+) T-cell stimulatory capacity and promoted a regulatory Th2 response. Finally, the concomitant increase of GM-CSF and pDC was significantly associated with relatively more aggressive breast cancer subtypes. Our results characterize the first tumor-derived factor that can activate pDC to promote a regulatory Th2 response, with implications for therapeutic targeting of a tumor-immune axis of growing recognition in its significance to cancer.

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