Imaging Immune Cells Using Fc Domain Probes in Mouse Cancer Xenograft Models

Abstract

Tracking immune responses is complex due to the mixture of cell types, variability in cell populations, and the dynamic environment. Tissue biopsies and blood analysis can identify infiltrating and circulating immune cells; however, due to the dynamic nature of the immune response, these are prone to sampling errors. Non-invasive targeted molecular imaging provides a method to monitor immune response, which has advantages of providing whole-body images, being non-invasive, and allowing longitudinal monitoring. Three non-specific Fc-containing proteins were labeled with near-infrared dye IRDye800CW and used as imaging probes to assess tumor-infiltrating immune cells in FaDu and A-431 xenograft models. We showed that Fc domains localize to tumors and are visible by fluorescent imaging. This tumor localization appears to be based on binding tumor-associated immune cells and some xenografts showed higher fluorescent signals than others. The Fc domain alone bound to different human immune cell types. The Fc domain can be a valuable research tool to study innate immune response.