Immunotherapy for Obesity-Associated HCC

The animal research protocol was approved by the ethical committee at the University of Geneva and the Geneva veterinary authorities (GE195/19 and GE71). All mice were housed in the animal facility of the University of Geneva on 12/12-hour light/dark cycles with free access to food and water. C57BL/6 N were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Ecully, France) and were fed a control diet (ND: 17% kcal fat, 61% kcal carbohydrate, 22% kcal protein; Envigo TD.120455) or a high fat/high sucrose diet (HFD: 45% kcal fat, 41% kcal carbohydrate, 15% kcal protein; Envigo TD.08811) for 30 weeks. Mice underwent laparotomy and 1.5.10⁵ RIL-175-LV-OVA-GFP or 4. 10⁵ MC-38 cells were injected into the portal vein. One group of HFD-fed mice was injected with 100 µg of anti-CD122 antibody per mouse (intraperitoneal, 5H4, BioXcell) every third day starting on day 12 after HCC injection. The control group was injected with rat IgG2a. For CD8+ cells depletion, mice were injected with 150 µg of anti-CD8a per mouse (intraperitoneal, 53–6.7, BioXcell) every third day starting on day 12 after HCC injection. For macrophages and dendritic cells depletion, HFD-fed mice were injected with clodronate liposomes (intraperitoneal, Liposoma) every four days starting on day 8 after HCC injection. PBS liposomes were injected as control.