Several host factors may affect the spread of cancer to distant organs; however, the intrinsic role of dendritic cells (DC) in controlling metastasis is poorly described. Here, we show in several tumor models that although the growth of primary tumors in Batf3-deficient mice, which lack cross-presenting DCs, was not different from primary tumors in wild-type (WT) control mice, Batf3-deficient mice had increased experimental and spontaneous metastasis and poorer survival. The increased metastasis was independent of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T lymphocytes, but required NK cells and IFN gamma. Chimeric mice in which Batf3-dependent DCs uniformly lacked the capacity to produce IL12 had metastatic burdens similar to the Batf3-deficient mice, suggesting that Batf3(+) DCs were the only cell type whose IL12 production was critical for controlling metastasis. We found that IL12-YFP reporter mice, whose lungs were injected with B16F10 melanoma, had increased numbers of IL12-expressing CD103(+) DCs with enhanced CD86 expression. Bone-marrow-derived DCs from WT, but not Batf3-deficient, mice activated NK cells to produce IFN gamma in an IL12-dependent manner and therapeutic injection of recombinant mouse IL12 decreased metastasis in both WT and Batf3-deficient mice. Analysis of TCGA datasets revealed an association between high expression of BATF3 and IRF8 and improved survival of breast cancer patients; BATF3 expression also significantly correlated with NK-cell receptor genes, IL12, and IFNG. Collectively, our findings show that IL12 from CD103(+) DCs is critical for NK cell-mediated control of tumor metastasis. (C) 2017 AACR.
| Authors | Mittal, Deepak; Vijayan, Dipti; Putz, Eva M.; Aguilera, Amelia R.; Markey, Kate A.; Straube, Jasmin; Kazakoff, Stephen; Nutt, Stephen L.; Takeda, Kazuyoshi; Hill, Geoffrey R.; Waddell, Nicola; Smyth, Mark J. |
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| Journal | Cancer Immunology Research |
| Pages | 1098-1108 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Date | 1/12/2017 |
| Grant ID | 1078671 |
| Funding Body | National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) |
| URL | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-17-0341 |
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