PROTOCOL Promoting the accumulation of tumor-specific T cells in tumor tissues by dendritic cell vaccines and chemokine-modulating agents Nataša Obermajer1 , Julie Urban2, Eva Wieckowski1,2,6, Ravikumar Muthuswamy1, Roshni Ravindranathan1, David L Bartlett1 & Pawel Kalinski1–5 1Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. 2Immunotransplantation Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. 3University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. 4Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. 5Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. 6Deceased. Correspondence should be addressed to P.K. (
[email protected]). Published online 18 January 2018; doi:10.1038/nprot.2017.130 This protocol describes how to induce large numbers of tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) in the spleens and lymph nodes of mice receiving dendritic cell (DC) vaccines and how to modulate tumor microenvironments (TMEs) to ensure effective homing of the vaccination-induced CTLs to tumor tissues. We also describe how to evaluate the numbers of tumor-specific CTLs within tumors. The protocol contains detailed information describing how to generate a specialized DC vaccine with augmented ability to induce tumor-specific CTLs. We also describe methods to modulate the production of chemokines in the TME and show how to quantify tumor-specific CTLs in the lymphoid organs and tumor tissues of mice receiving different treatments. The combined experimental procedure, including tumor implantation, DC vaccine generation, chemokine-modulating (CKM) approaches, and the analyses of tumor-specific systemic and intratumoral immunity is performed over 30–40 d. The presented ELISpot-based ex vivo CTL assay takes 6 h to set up and 5 h to develop.