Tumor-induced interleukin-10 inhibits type 1 immune responses directed at a tumor antigen as well as a non-tumor antigen present at the tumor site.

Interleukin (IL)-10 is a potent immunosuppressive cytokine that has been found to be present at the tumor site in a wide variety of human cancers, including transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. Using a murine bladder tumor (MB49), which we show to express the male transplantation antigen (HY), we tested the hypothesis that IL-10 at the tumor site can block the generation of a tumor-specific type 1 immune response. We show that, despite its expression of HY, MB49 fails to prime for an HY-specific type 1 (IFN-gamma) response in normal female mice. Although MB49 does not constitutively produce IL-10, our data support a model whereby MB49 induces infiltrating cells to produce IL-10. This feature rendered the IL-10 knockout (KO) mouse, whose infiltrating cells are incapable of IL-10 production, a suitable model in which to study MB49 in the absence of IL-10. When injected into IL-10 KO mice, MB49 does prime for an HY-specific, type 1 immune response. Furthermore, IL-10 KO mice show prolonged survival and an increased capacity to reject tumors as compared with normal mice. We also tested the ability of tumor-induced IL-10 to inhibit immunization to a non-tumor antigen present at the tumor site. When vaccinia virus encoding beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) is injected into the tumors of normal mice, no beta-gal-specific IFN-gamma response is mounted. However, when this same viral construct is injected into the tumors of IL-10 KO mice, it produces a strong beta-gal-specific, IFN-gamma response. These studies demonstrate that tumor-induced IL-10 can block the generation of a tumor-specific type 1 immune response as well as subvert attempts to elicit a type 1 immune response to a non-tumor antigen at the tumor site.