Upon the aberrant activation of oncogenes, normal cells can enter the cellular senescence program, a state of stable cell-cycle arrest, which represents an important barrier against tumour development in vivo. Senescent cells communicate with their environment by secreting various cytokines and growth factors, and it was reported that this 'secretory phenotype' can have pro- as well as anti-tumorigenic effects. Here we show that oncogene-induced senescence occurs in otherwise normal murine hepatocytes in vivo. Pre-malignant senescent hepatocytes secrete chemo- and cytokines and are subject to immune-mediated clearance (designated as 'senescence surveillance'), which depends on an intact CD4(+) T-cell-mediated adaptive immune response. Impaired immune surveillance of pre-malignant senescent hepatocytes results in the development of murine hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), thus showing that senescence surveillance is important for tumour suppression in vivo. In accordance with these observations, ras-specific Th1 lymphocytes could be detected in mice, in which oncogene-induced senescence had been triggered by hepatic expression of Nras(G12V). We also found that CD4(+) T cells require monocytes/macrophages to execute the clearance of senescent hepatocytes. Our study indicates that senescence surveillance represents an important extrinsic component of the senescence anti-tumour barrier, and illustrates how the cellular senescence program is involved in tumour immune surveillance by mounting specific immune responses against antigens expressed in pre-malignant senescent cells.

The importance of tumor associated neutrophils (TANs) in cancer development is in the meantime well established. Numerous of clinical data document the adverse prognostic effects of neutrophil infiltration in solid tumors. However, certain tumor therapies need functional neutrophils to be effective, suggesting altered neutrophil polarization associated with different outcomes for cancer patients. Therefore, modulation of neutrophilic phenotypes represents a potent therapeutic option, but factors mediating neutrophil polarization are still poorly defined. In this manuscript we provide evidence that type I IFNs alter neutrophilic phenotype into anti‐tumor, both in mice and human. In the absence of IFN‐β, pro‐tumor properties, such as reduced tumor cytotoxicity with low neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) expression, low ICAM1 and TNF‐α expression, dominated neutrophil phenotypes in primary lesion and premetastatic lung. Interestingly, such neutrophils have significantly prolonged life‐span. Notably, interferon therapy in mice altered TAN polarization towards anti‐tumor N1. Similar changes in neutrophil activation could be observed in melanoma patients undergoing type I IFN therapy. Altogether, these data highlight the therapeutic potential of interferons, suggesting optimization of its clinical use as potent anti‐tumor agent.

Immunological characterization of immune cells that reside in specific anatomic compartments often requires their isolation from the respective tissue on the basis of enzymatic tissue disintegration. Applying enzymatic digestion of primary splenocytes, we evaluated the impact of collagenase and dispase, two enzymes that are commonly used for the liberation of immune cells from tissues, on the detectability of 48 immunologically relevant surface molecules that are frequently used for flow cytometric identification, isolation, and characterization of immune cell subsets. Whereas collagenase treatment had only minor effects on surface expression of most molecules tested, dispase treatment considerably affected antibody-mediated detectability of the majority of surface markers in subsequent FACS analyses. This effect was long lasting and, in case of high-dose dispase treatment, evident for the majority of surface molecules even after 24 h of in vitro culture. Of note, high-dose dispase treatment not only affected surface expression of certain molecules but also impaired antigen-specific proliferation of CD4 + and CD8 + T cells. Together, our data indicate that enzymatic tissue disintegration can have profound effects on the expression of a variety of cell-surface molecules with direct consequences for phenotypic analysis, FACS-and MACS-based target cell isolation, and immune cell function in cell culture experiments.

AECIIs are capable of priming naive CD4(+) T cells, demonstrating an active participation of these cells in respiratory immunity. Moreover, AECIIs display as yet unrecognized functions in balancing inflammatory and regulatory T-cell responses in the lung by connecting innate and adaptive immune mechanisms to establish peripheral T-cell tolerance to respiratory self-antigen.