The therapeutic effect of MIC therapy is abrogated by NK cell- or CD8+ T cell depletion.

<p>Each graph line represents an individual tumor growth curve. <b>A</b>, Mice depleted of CD8+ T cells prior to tumor inoculation and throughout the MIC therapy (<i>red lines</i>, n = 5) all developed a tumor. In these MIC-treated mice tumors grew out significantly faster than in the isotype-control mAb-treated mice (<i>grey lines</i>; p<0.02, n = 5), who displayed tumor growth kinetics similar to MIC-treated animals in previous experiments. Nonetheless, tumor outgrowth in CD8+ T cell depleted mice was still significantly slower than in untreated mice (<i>black lines</i>; p<0.02, n = 5). The tumor size of CD8+ T cell depleted animals was statistically compared with isotype-control mAb-treated animals on day 28, and with untreated animals on day 22. <b>B</b>, Mice depleted of NK cells prior to tumor inoculation and throughout MIC therapy (<i>green lines</i>, n = 5) showed tumor establishment in 80% of mice. Tumors in these mice grew out very slowly or remained of equal small size throughout the experiment. In contrast, untreated mice showed rapid tumor development (<i>black lines</i>, n = 5). Mice treated with isotype-control mAb and MIC therapy (<i>grey lines</i>, n = 5) showed tumor growth similar to mice treated with MIC therapy in previous experiments.