For in vivo studies, the murine tumor cell lines B16.F10 and CT26.wt (ATCC) were stably transfected by electroporation (Amaxa) with a plasmid coding for human MUC1 (40 tandem repeats) and confirmed for TA-MUC1 expression in vitro and in vivo in mice by flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry using GT-00A. Cells were cultured in standard medium +100 nM methotrexate (Hexal, Holzkirchen, Germany) as selection pressure. For the metastasis model, hMUC1-B16.F10 cells were further transduced to stably express firefly luciferase (110 RLU/cell) enabling detection of metastasis. Origin, TA-MUC1 and IL-15R expression status of cell lines are indicated in
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were prepared from commercially available buffy coats (DRK Berlin) or leukapheresates (Charité Berlin) of healthy donors by Biocoll separation (Biochrom, Cambridge, UK) and density gradient centrifugation. PBMCs from leukapheresate products were stored frozen in liquid nitrogen.