HUMAN AND MOUSE TUMOR-ASSOCIATED MACROPHAGES IMPAIR NK CELL FUNCTIONS AND STIMULATE TUMOR GROWTH IN A MOUSE RENAL CELL CARCINOMA MODEL

NÚÑEZ, SOL YANEL; REGGE, MARÍA VICTORIA; SECCHIARI, FLORENCIA; SIERRA, JESSICA MARIEL; FRIEDRICH, ADRIÁN; SANTILLI, MARÍA CECILIA; DOMAICA, CAROLINA INÉS; FUERTES, MERCEDES BEATRIZ; ZWIRNER, NORBERTO WALTER

Congreso; Reunión anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología; 2019

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) are the most abundant renal cell carcinoma (RCC)-infiltrating immune cells and their abundance correlates with poor prognosis of the illness. As TAM resemble anti-inflammatory macrophages (M2) and we previously demonstrated that in vitro differentiated M2 inhibit NK cell effector functions, the aim of this work was to explore the impact of RCC-derived TAM on NK cell functions to better understand local immunoregulatory processes that impact on cancer progression. Methods. BALB/c mice were subcutaneously injected with syngeneic RCC Renca tumor cells and TAM were depleted using clodronate. Tumor growth was measured and intratumoral NK cell phenotype were assessed by flow cytometry. Also, we isolated TAM and characterized NK cells from human RCC nephrectomies. Results. Clodronate-treated mice displayed less than 20% of TAM abundance after 21 days (p