ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.

Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Hepato Pancreatic Biliary Cancers

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1603293

This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Microbial Interactions in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma MicroenvironmentView all 4 articles

The development of pancreatic cancer is accompanied by significant changes in the immune response in genetically predisposed mice.

Provisionally accepted
Urszula  DanilukUrszula Daniluk1,2*Agnieszka  Świdnicka-SiergiejkoAgnieszka Świdnicka-Siergiejko1,3Jaroslaw  DanilukJaroslaw Daniluk1,3Malgorzata  RusakMalgorzata Rusak1,4Milena  DąbrowskaMilena Dąbrowska1,4Katarzyna  Guzińska-UstymowiczKatarzyna Guzińska-Ustymowicz1,5Anna  PryczyniczAnna Pryczynicz1,5Andrzej  DąbrowskiAndrzej Dąbrowski1,3
  • 1Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland
  • 2Department of Pediatrics, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Nutrition, Allergology and Pulmonology, Bialystok, Poland
  • 3Department of Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine, Bialystok, Poland
  • 4Department of Heamatological Diagnostics, Bialystok, Poland
  • 5Department of General Pathomorphology, Bialystok, Poland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer (PC) is extremely complex and involves genetic and environmental factors, as well as significant changes in the immune response to tumor cells from the loss of immune surveillance to the development of immunotolerance to cancer. Currently available literature data on this subject is inconsistent. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the status of dendritic cells (DC) and other immune cells in the pancreas and blood of mice genetically predisposed to pancreatic cancer (KrasG12D mutation). The second objective was to assess the impact of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from PC mice on pancreatic tumor development and alterations in pancreatic and blood immune cell counts in mice genetically predisposed to PC. Using immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry, we found that in mice genetically predisposed to PC, cerulein (CER) administered intraperitoneally induced tumor growth and inflammatory cell infiltration in pancreatic tissue, but without affecting immune cell differentiation in the blood. In contrast, orally administered FMT activated the immune system in the gastrointestinal tract, leading to generalized immune cell activation, as observed in the blood, and local infiltration of cells in the pancreatic tissue of Kras mutant mice that developed pancreatic tumors. Interestingly, immunohistochemical evaluation of pancreatic tissue revealed that the Kras mutation alone causes increased infiltration of CD11b⁺, CD20⁺, CD3⁺, CD4⁺, and CD8⁺ cells. After FMT, there was a trend toward an increased intensity of infiltration by these immune cells, with the exception of CD11b⁺. Conclusions: Our data suggest that pancreatic cancer development in genetically predisposed mice is accompanied by profound changes in immune cell composition. Treatment with tumor-inducing agents such as CER or FMT from tumor-bearing mice, accelerated PC progression. The type of immune system response, systemic or local, in mice with pancreatic cancer depends on the route of entry of the inflammatory agent. Oral administration of FMT activated the systemic immune response, in contrast to the intraperitoneal injection of CER.

Keywords: Pancreatic Cancer, experimental mouse models, fecal microbiota transplantation, immune response, Dendritic Cells

Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Daniluk, Świdnicka-Siergiejko, Daniluk, Rusak, Dąbrowska, Guzińska-Ustymowicz, Pryczynicz and Dąbrowski. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Urszula Daniluk, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland

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