Although thyroglobulin (Tg) would be expected to act as a tumor-associated antigen that might be exploitable by immunotherapy against thyroid cancers, it remains unclear how to effectively enhance the immune response to Tg in human since it is a self-component glycoprotein. We therefore tested whether and how human peripheral blood (PB) monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with human (h)Tg would induce activation of hTg-specific T cells. We found that immature DCs (iDCs) exhibited a higher endocytic capacity for fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated hTg than did mature DCs (mDCs). Although freshly isolated T cells responded poorly to mDCs, hTg-primed T cells responded much more strongly to hTg pulsed mDCs, which selectively induced IFN-γ-secreting T cells. These results suggest that hTg-pulsed mDCs enhance the responses of Tg-specific T cells, raising the possibility that vaccination with hTg-pulsed mDCs may be an effective approach as immunotherapy to potentiate thyroid cancer specific therapy.

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