Prolonged survival of mice with glioma injected intracerebrally with double cytokine—secreting cells

Abstract

✓ A novel approach toward the treatment of glioma was developed in a murine model. The genes for both interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were first transfected into a mouse fibroblast cell line that expresses defined major histocompatibility complex (MHC) determinants (H—2k). The double cytokine—secreting cells were then cotransplanted intracerebrally with the Gl261 murine glioma cell line into syngeneic C57BL/6 mice (H—2b) whose cells differed at the MHC from the cellular immunogen. The results indicate that the survival of mice with glioma injected with the cytokine-secreting allogeneic cells was significantly prolonged, relative to the survival of mice receiving equivalent numbers of glioma cells alone. Using a standard 51Cr-release assay, the specific release of isotope from labeled Gl261 cells coincubated with spleen cells from mice injected intracerebrally with the glioma cells and the cytokine-secreting fibroblasts was significantly higher than the release of isotope from glioma cells co...