The Cytotoxicity Of Astragalus Polysaccharide Pulsed Dendritic Cells Co-cultured With Cytokine Induced Killers On K562Cells

Objective:To observe the effects of Chinese traditional medicine astragalus polysaccharides(APS) on the maturation and the function of antigen presentation of dendritic cells(DCs), and explore the immune-enhancing effects for anti-leukemia K562cells in vitro while the DCs pulsed by astragalus polysaccharides were co-cultured with the homologous cytokine-induced killers (CIK), simple DC-CIK group and APS+DC-CIK group as control.Methods:DCs and CIK cells were generated by culturing PBMC of healthy blood donors. Then cellular phenotype of CD40, CD80and HLA-DR of two different original DCs which were pulsed with astragalus polysaccharides and typical methods were analysed on the9th day by FACS, and the two original DCs were co-cultured with homologous CIK cells respectively.Then we detected the secretion of interleukin-12(1L-12) and interferon-y (IFN-y) by ELISA, and the cytotoxic activity of effector cells on K562cells in vitro were measured by MTT assay.Results:Compared with the DCs induced by the conventional method, the cellular phenotype of CD40, CD80and HLA-DR of the DCs induced by astragalus polysaccharide were significantly higher (P＜0.05), respectively (30.12±3.25)%,(67.72±4.34)%and (86.64±4.68). And when DCs induced by astragalus polysaccharide were co-cultured with homologous CIK cells, the secretion of IL-12and IFN-y were significantly increased (P<0.05), respectively (152±6.38) pg/mL and (2367±160.34) pg/mL. The astragalus polysaccharide pulsed DC-CIK cells resulted in an enhanced killing activity to K562cells than those of unpulsed DC-CIK cells(P<0.05).Conclusion:Astragalus polysaccharide could increase the expression of co-stimulatory molecules and enhance antigen-presenting capacity of DCs, and when the DCs induced by astragalus polysaccharide were co-cultured with homologous CIK, the secretion of IL-12and IFN-y were significantly increased. Meanwhile, the astragalus polysaccharides pulsed DC-CIK cells resulted in an enhanced killing activity to K562cells than that of unpulsd DC-CIK cells.