Tumor cells engineered to express major histocompatibility complex class II molecules induce T helper cell-dependent responses that protect mice from normally lethal doses of unmodified tumor cells.

Tumor cells typically fail to stimulate protective immune response in the autochthonous host. This does not appear to be the result of either inadequate antigenicity or failure to express a normal complement of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class 1 molecules. To investigate if tumor cells fail to stimulate protective immunity because they fail to activate adequate numbers of T helper cells, we transfected murine fibrosarcoma and melanoma cells with genes encoding syngeneic and allogeneic MHC class II molecules. Fibrosarcoma cells expressing either type of MHC class II molecules failed to induce tumors in syngeneic mice and stimulated T helper cell-dependent antitumor immune responses that protected mice from subsequent challenge with untransfected tumor cells. The antitumor response involved both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and appeared to be dependent on at least low levels of innate tumor cell immunogenicity.