Fig. 2

STING activation with DMXAA activates CD8⁺ T cells and induces pancreatic cancer regression in mice. a Subcutaneous tumor cell implantation and treatment strategy. b Kaplan-Meier survival curves for non-treated (NT) control (black line) and experimental groups. c Tumor growth over time in DMXAA-treated (red lines) or control (black lines) mice. Data are from two separate experiments, n = 8–10 mice per group. d Excised tumor weights were measured 19 days after implantation. CD8, CD4, or NK cells were immunodepleted in vivo and tumor size measured at study end. e-h Tumors were collected and processed into single cell suspensions and immune profiling of CD8 T cells assessed using flow cytometry. Values are mean ± SD, n = 6–8. i Spleen-derived CD8⁺ T cells were isolated by immunomagnetic sorting and tested in IFN-γ ELISPOT assays using KPC1242 tumor cells as stimulators. Values are mean IFN-γ spot forming unit (SFU) ± SD. Data are from 1 of 3 replicate experiments, and the CD8⁺ T cells were isolated from the pooled splenocytes of 3 mice. j Killing of KPC1242 cancer cells by ex vivo-expanded tumor-infiltrating CD8⁺ T cells from DMXAA-treated tumors. Values are mean ± SD, n = 3. Representative images of apoptotic cells (green) and living tumor cells (red) at 2 h (top) and 22 h (bottom). *, P ≤ 0.05; **, P ≤ 0.01; ***, P ≤ 0.001