Characterization of tumor infiltrating nk cells (tink) and type 1 innate lymphoid cells (ilc1) in breast cancer

SANTILLI, M. CECILIA; REGGE, MARÍA V.; GANTOV, MARIANA; FRIEDRICH, ADRIÁN D.; SIERRA, JESSICA M.; SECCHIARI, FLORENCIA; TROTTA, ALDANA; RUBINSZTAIN, NATALIA; LOZADA MONTANARI, BELEN C. ; FUERTES, MERCEDES B.; ZWIRNER, NORBERTO W.; DOMAICA, CAROLINA I.

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta SAIC SAI AAFE NANOMED.ar; 2021

ILC1 and NK cells share several phenotypic and functional characteristics and display plasticity because they can interconvert one into another in a context-dependent manner. Indeed, TGF-β-driven conversion of TINK into intermediate populations of ILC1 (intILC1) and ILC1 has been proposed as a tumor immune escape mechanism. However, the role of ILC1 in antitumor immunity remains ill-explored. Thus, the aim of this work was to investigate TINK and ILC1 in the tumor microenvironment (TME) using the 4T1 triple-negative breast cancer mouse model. BALB/c mice were injected with 3x104 4T1 cells and after 19 days, mice were euthanized and cell suspensions of tumor, draining lymph nodes, spleen, lungs, and liver were obtained to study NK cells, intILC1 and ILC1 by flow cytometry. Tissues from healthy mice were also obtained. ILC1 and intILC1 were present in tumor and lung, but were absent in spleen and lymph nodes, while only ILC1 were found in liver from both groups of mice. A higher frequency of intILC1 than of ILC1 (p