Objective:To invetigate the antitumor effects and mechanisms of tumor antigen peptide-pulsed dendritic cells combined with Astragalus.Methods:High purity DCs were obtained from 9-day culture of murine bone marrow cells.Mut1 is a MHC class I-restricted tumor antigen peptide of Lewis lung cancer.DCs were incubated with Mut1

then vaccines were established.Lung cancer were established on the mice.The tumor-bearing mice were treated and the survival period of the mice was observed.Treatment groups were divided into PBS

DC-Mut1

DC-Mut1 with Astragalus(DC-Mut1+AG).The phenotypes of splenocytes of these treated mice were detected by FACS.Interleukin-2 and interleukin-4 in the serum were measured by cytokine-specific ELISA.Normal mice developed a potent immune protection against the attack from tumor cells.The treatment groups were same as the previous groups.Results:The DC-Mut1+AG group demonstrated antitumor effects with the regression majority of tumors.The proportion of the CD4+T and CD8+T cells in DC-Mut1+AG group increased compared with that of DC-Mut1 group(P<0.05).The IL-2 level of DC-Mut1+AG group was higher than those of DC-Mut1 group.The IL-4 level of DC-Mut1+AG group was lower than that of the PBS group.Upon undergoing attack from LLC cells

DC-Mut1+AG group had no formation of tumors.In contrast

4 of all the mice(6) treated with DC-Mut1 developed tumors.Conclusion:DC-Mut1+AG could exert antitumor effects in the mice and significantly inhibit tumor metastasis

which demonstrated a specific immune protection.