Fig. 5

Microscopic evaluation of the cytotoxic activity of CIK cells prepared from co-culture with peptide-loaded DC cells against the BPH-1 immortalized prostatic epithelial cells or prostatospheroid-derived prostate cancer cells. Representative fluorescence images show the co-cultures of CellTrace™ Far Red-labeled peptide-loaded DC-activated CIK cells and the EGFP-labeled BPH-1 cells or prostate cancer cells derived from DU145, LNCaP, or VCaP prostatospheroids. Cytochemical examination revealed that a significant induction of apoptotic cells, as evidenced by their fragmented condensed nuclei, was demonstrated among the prostatospheroid-derived prostate cancer cells upon 4 h incubation with the peptide-loaded DC-activated CIK cells. However, no obvious apoptotic cells were detected among the BPH-1 cells after co-culture with the same P-DC-CIK cell preparation