关键词：乳腺癌细胞（生物学）；免疫；粘膜；T淋巴细胞
摘 要：Breast cancer develops from breast mucosa and breast mucosa has intact immune system to maintain epithelial integrity. In this study our goal was to study the immune subsets associated with breast mucosa and develop the strategies to populate mucosa with immune effectors in order to prevent breast cancer. Data obtained from our studies suggest that T cells constitute the majority of immune cells in breast mucosa and this includes conventional CD4 T cells, CD8+ T cells and significant fraction of unconventional double positive (DP) CD4+CD8+ T cells. We also observed that intramammary immunization induces antigen-specific immune responses in breast mucosa. Currently, studies are being done to characterize these double positive T cells to determine whether these are regulatory or cytotoxic in nature and their role in prevention of breast cancer. In addition to this, we are also investigating the ability of intramammary immunization in prevention of breast cancer and the feasibility of translating this approach into preventive breast cancer vaccine setting.