Detection of functional antigen-specific T cells from urine of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients

Oncoimmunology. 2012 Aug 1;1(5):694-698. doi: 10.4161/onci.20526.

Abstract

To gain further insights into the role of T lymphocytes in immune responses against bladder tumors, we developed a method that monitors the presence of functional antigen-specific T cells in the urine of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients. As relatively few immune cells can usually be recovered from urine, we examined different isolation/amplification protocols and took advantage of patients treated with weekly intravesical instillations of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, resulting in large amounts of immune cells into urine. Our findings demonstrate that, upon in vitro amplification, antigen-specific T cells can be detected by an interferon γ (IFNγ)-specific ELISPOT assay.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't