T lymphocytes derived from 16.2β mice express a Tg TCR β-chain specific for an I-Ad-restricted peptide (LACKp, FSPSLEHPIVVSGSWD) derived from the Leishmania Major-derived Ag, LACK 10, 44. TS/A and TS/A-LACK tumour cells were described previously 10, 47, 55. Briefly, TS/A-LACK tumour cells express the LACK Ag as intracellular protein (i.e. as a model tumour-associated GDC-0199 ic50 Ag) and do not express MHC class II. Exponentially growing TS/A-LACK tumour cells were subcutaneously injected (4×105 cells/mouse, 100 μL PBS) in syngeneic

mice (BALB/c), resulting in established solid tumours by day 10 10. Mice were sacrificed 21 days after tumour-cell injection to obtain T-dLN. At least five mice per group were pooled for immunological studies, and seven per group in ACT experiments. All the in vivo studies were approved by the Ethical Committee of San Raffaele Scientific Institute (Milan, Italy) and performed according to its guidelines. Tumour-free and/or tumour-bearing mice were sacrificed and the axillary, brachial and inguinal LN was surgically excised. Single-cell suspensions were obtained and cultured in 24-well plates at the density of 4–5×106/mL in complete medium (RPMI-5% FBS, 100 U/mL penicillin, 100 U/mL streptomycin, and 2.5×10−5M 2-ME, Invitrogen Life Technology, Milano, Italy) in the absence

or in the presence of recombinant mouse IL-7 (50–100 ng/mL), IL-2 learn more (20 ng/mL), IL-6 (45 ng/mL), or IL-15 (100 ng/mL) (Peprotech). When required, cells were labeled with the

fluorescent dye CFSE at the final concentration of 1 μM, according to manufacturer instructions. CD4+ T cells were purified by magnetic beads (Dynal, Invitrogen)-assisted Niclosamide negative depletion of MHC class II+, CD8+ cells. CD4+ T-cell purity was evaluated by flow cytometry, and proved to be higher than 97%. I-Ad/LACK fluorescent multimer staining was performed and with PE- or PerCP-labeled anti-CD4, anti-CD25, anti-CD44, and anti-CD62L mAb and with allophycocyanin-labeled anti-CD8a, anti-CD11b, and anti-B220 mAb (BD, Pharmingen) as described previously 10. TO-PRO-3 (1 nM final concentration; Molecular Probes, Invitrogen) was added to the sample just before flow cytometric analyses to discriminate viable and dead cells. CD8a+, CD11b+, B220+, and TO-PRO-3+ cells were excluded by electronic gating during the acquisition. Typically, 1–3×105 CD4+ or 103 CD4+ I-Ad/LACK+ events were acquired using an FACS Calibur flow cytometer (BD). Intracellular Bcl-2 staining was performed as described previously 56. LACK-specific artificial APC (LACK aAPC) were prepared as described previously 57 by coating 5-μm polystyrene sulfate latex beads (Invitrogen) with I-Ad/LACK dimers (20 μg/mL) and anti-CD28 mAb (37.51; 2 μg/mL). Control aAPC were prepared by coating beads with anti-CD28 mAb only (−/28 aAPC). Cytokine production in response to LACK aAPC was comparable to that induced by LACK peptide-pulsed syngeneic splenocytes (data not shown).