Antigen-specific mRNA transfection of autologous dendritic cells.

Several reports have described the use of tumor-extracted RNA as source of tumor antigen for the preparation of vaccines based on dendritic cells (DC) and its potential use for antigen-specific or polyvalent tumor vaccination. Upon transfection, RNA is transcribed into proteins that enter the cytoplasmic degradation pathway and can be presented by DC through class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-I, thus inducing specific T cell cytotoxic responses. In this chapter, we present a protocol to transfect murine dendritic cells with tumor mRNA by means of electroporation.