A study published in Cancer Cell International reports a new strategy of immunotherapy targeting combined with transarterial chemoembolization for the treatment of hepatocarcinoma via inhibition of CCR2 and CXCR2.
To establish a primary rat HCC model, male Sprague Dawley rats were purchased from Shanghai Laboratory Animal Research Center . The rats were housed under specific pathogen-free conditions. Rats received diethylnitrosamine through drinking water to induce liver cancer. More than 90% of the diethylnitrosamine-treated rats developed macroscopic liver tumors at 12–14 weeks. Animal experiments were approved by the Ethics Board of Second Military Medical University.
]. Each sample was assessed and scored independently by two pathologists who were blinded to the study protocol.]. The following antibodies were used for immunocytochemistry: anti-CCL2 , anti-CCR2 , anti-CXCL8 , and anti-CXCR2 , anti-CD68 , anti-iNOS , anti-CD163 , anti-MPO , and anti-CK19 . Phosphate buffered saline was used in negative controls. Kaplan–Meier estimated of overall survival in 74 patients with HCC according to the expression level of CCL2, CCR2, CXCL8 or CXCR2 in IHC.
]. Patients were divided into low- and high-expression groups by the median of mean integrated optical density.All experiments were repeated at least 3 times with similar results. All quantitative data are expressed as mean ± SD for each experiment. Comparisons between two experimental groups were made using Student’s t-test. One-way analysis of variance was performed using GraphPad Prism software version 7.0. Analysis of clinical data was performed with SPSS Statistics software version 24.