Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the inhibitory effects of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells combined with docetaxel (DTX) on the growth of drug-resistant lung adenocarcinoma cell line SPC-A1/DTX in vitro and in vivo.
Methods: The MTT assay was employed to evaluate the cytotoxic activity of DTX, CIK cells, and DTX plused CIK cells against SPC-A1/DTX cells in vitro. For the in vivo assay, SPC-A1/DTX cells were injected into nude mice subcutaneously to establish a tumor-bearing mice model. On the day 14, normal saline, docetaxel, CIK cells, and CIK cells combined with docetaxel were administered intraperitoneally, respectively. All the nude mice were sacrificed at day 15 after treatment and the tumors were weighed out.
Results: The MTT assay showed that CIK cells possessed a higher antitumor cytotoxic activity against SPC-A1/DTX cells than SPC-A1 cells in vitro (p < 0.05). The synergetic antitumor activity positively correlated with the E:T ratio and the concentration of docetaxel. The animal data also suggested that CIK cells combined with DTX had a stronger suppressive effect on tumor growth in vivo.
Conclusion: CIK cells plused with docetaxel demonstrated a prominent augmentation of antitumor activity against multidrug resistance lung adenocarcinoma cell lines both in vitro and in vivo.