Comparison of proliferation and cytotoxicity of CIK cells from different tissues

    WANG Jiaª²Xiang1, ZHENG Shu1, LIU Qiuª²Liang2

    1Tumor Institute, Second Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China, 2Department of General Surgery, First Hospital, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To compare the proliferation, cytotoxicity and the mechanism of CIK cells from two different tissues. METHODS: The peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood were harvested from 16 subjects. The lymphocytes were isolated by density gradient centrifugation and suspended in medium with CD3 mAb, rILª²2 and IFNª²¦Ã as inducing agents to prepare CIK cells. The proliferation of the cells were compared by cell counting and the cytotoxic activities to gastric carcinoma line BGC823 were determined by MTT. The changes of tumor cells after induction with CIK cells were observed with transmission electron microscope. RESULTS: The proliferation speed and the antiª²tumor activity of CIK cells originated from umbilical cord blood were significantly higher than those from peripheral blood (CMNC CIK vs MNC CIK, P©‚0.05). CIK cells from umbilical cord blood predominantly induced the necrosis of the tumor cells while those from peripheral blood mainly induced the apoptosis of the tumor cells. The two had significant difference. CONCLUSION: Compared with the peripheral blood CIK cells, umbilical cord blood CIK cells have the advantages of rapid proliferation speed and powerful cytotoxicity. The mechanism of cytotoxicity is different in peripheral blood CIK cells and in umbilical cord blood CIK cells. ......