Whether and how the reactive oxygen species generated by hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) promote immune evasion of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains mysterious. Therefore, investigating the function of superoxide anion (O 2 •- ), the firstly generated reactive oxygen species, during the immune evasion become necessary. In this work, we establish a novel in situ imaging method for visualization of O 2 •- changes in HSCs based on a new two-photon fluorescence probe TPH. TPH comprises recognition group for O 2 •- and HSCs targeting peptides. We observe that O 2 •- in HSCs gradually rose, impairing the infiltration of CD8 + T cells in HCC mice. Further studies reveal that the cyclin-dependent kinase 4 is deactivated by O 2 •- , and then cause the up-regulation of PD-L1. Our work provides molecular insights into HSC-mediated immune evasion of HCC, which may represent potential targets for HCC immunotherapy.
Keyphrases
- reactive oxygen species
- fluorescence imaging
- induced apoptosis
- cell cycle arrest
- hydrogen peroxide
- cell death
- ionic liquid
- gene expression
- high resolution
- photodynamic therapy
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- living cells
- signaling pathway
- cell cycle
- oxidative stress
- metabolic syndrome
- risk assessment
- adipose tissue
- cell proliferation
- insulin resistance
- human health
- quantum dots
- high fat diet induced
- energy transfer