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.

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencias 2021; 2021

ILC1 and NK cells share several phenotypic and functional characteristics and display plasticitybecause 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 beenproposed as a tumor immune escape mechanism. However, the role of ILC1 in antitumorimmunity remains ill-explored. Thus, the aim of this work was to investigate TINK and ILC1 inthe tumor microenvironment (TME) using the 4T1 triple-negative breast cancer mouse model.BALB/c mice were injected with 30.000 4T1 cells and after 19 days, mice were euthanized andcell suspensions of tumor, draining lymph nodes, spleen, lungs, and liver were obtained tostudy NK cells, intILC1 and ILC1 by flow cytometry. Tissues from healthy mice were alsoobtained. ILC1 and intILC1 were present in tumor and lung, but were absent in spleen andlymph nodes, while only ILC1 were found in liver from both groups of mice. A higher frequencyof intILC1 than of ILC1 (p