gms | German Medical Science

27th German Cancer Congress Berlin 2006

German Cancer Society (Frankfurt/M.)

22. - 26.03.2006, Berlin

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Identification of regeneration and tolerance factor (RTF) as a novel mediator of glioblastoma-associated immunosuppression

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Patrick Roth - Universitätsklinikum, Neurologische Klinik, Tübingen, Deutschland
  • Steffen Aulwurm - Universitätsklinikum, Neurologische Klinik, Tübingen
  • Richard Meyermann - Universitätsklinikum, Insitut für Hirnforschung, Tübingen
  • Kenneth Beaman - University of Medicine and Science, Department of Immunology, North Chicago
  • Michael Weller - Universitätsklinikum, Neurologische Klinik, Tübingen
  • Jörg Wischhusen - Universitätsklinikum, Neurologische Klinik, Tübingen

27. Deutscher Krebskongress. Berlin, 22.-26.03.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocPO266

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dkk2006/06dkk376.shtml

Published: March 20, 2006

© 2006 Roth et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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RTF was originally identified in placenta where it is thought to be essential for fetal allograft survival. Soluble RTF up-regulates the production of interleukin (IL)-10 and interferes with IL-2 signalling in stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Since glioblastoma is a paradigmatic tumor for tumor-dependent immunosuppression, we assessed a possible role for RTF in glioblastoma-associated immunosuppression. We here report that RTF mRNA and protein are expressed in human glioma cells in vitro. In vivo, RTF expression is hardly detectable in normal human brain specimens, but strongly upregulated in glioblastoma tissue samples. Suppression of RTF expression in the human glioma cell line LNT-229 by RNA interference promotes the lysis of these cells by NK and T cells in vitro. Moreover, RTF-depleted glioma cells are less tumorigenic than control cells in nude mice in vivo. RTF is thus a novel aberrantly expressed molecule which may confer immune privilege to human malignant gliomas.