Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu khoa học quốc tế về bệnh thú y đề tài: Altered maturation of dendritic cells by taxol, an anticancer drug | J. Vet. Sci. 2003 4 3 229-234 JOURNAL OF Veterinary Science Altered maturation of dendritic cells by taxol an anticancer drug Hong-Gu Joo Department of Veterinary Medicine Cheju National University Jeju 690-756 Korea Taxol is a clinically useful anticancer drug against a variety of cancers. Although it has been known that taxol induces the apoptosis of cancer cells through cytochrome C release and the activation of caspases the effect of taxol on dendritic cells DCs has not been studied. In this study taxol enhanced the expression of MHC class II on DCs compared to medium-treated immature DCs. Surprisingly the viability of DCs was not decreased by taxol whereas that of cancer cells was. It was confirmed that taxol did not induce the apoptosis of DCs based on annexin V-FITC propidium iodide PI staining assay. Since previous study demonstrated that taxol induced the production of nitric oxide NO related to the viability of DCs the level of NO from taxol-treated DCs was determined. Any significant amount of NO was not detected. Although taxol enhanced the expression of a maturation marker MHC class II molecules it strikingly inhibited the proliferation of splenic T lymphocytes activated by DCs. Taken together this study demonstrated that taxol induced an altered maturation of DCs the increase of MHC class II molecule but the inhibition of proliferation of splenic T lymphocytes. It is suggested that taxol may induce the immunosuppression in patients with cancer by the inhibition of DC-activated T cell proliferation but not by the direct killing of DCs. Key words dendritic cells taxol maturation Introduction Taxol is a clinically effective anticancer drug against a variety of cancers including breast cancer. Taxol binds to tubulin retards microtubule depolymerization impairs mitosis blocks cell cycle and facilitates apoptosis 15 . Although the effect of taxol on tumor cells has been studied the effect of taxol on various immune cells remains unclear. Recent studies .
