Fig. 5

CAF-derived IL-6 compromised FRα-CAR-T cell killing ability in 2D cancer cell culture. A The representative of fluorescence images shows mWasabi-luciferase expressing target cells (T) after pre-treating with CM and coculturing with effector FRα-CAR-T cells (E) at E:T ratios of 0.5:1, 1:1, and 2.5:1 for 24 h (scale bars = 100 μm). The target-only condition (T-only) indicates target cancer cells without coculturing with effector T cells. B Bar graphs showing the killing ability of FRα-CAR-T cells from 2 donors (mean ± SD of three independent experiments of each donor). ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 compared to the T-only condition using one-way ANOVA. UT, untreated cells; BNF, breast normal fibroblast; CAFs, cancer-associated fibroblasts; CM, conditioned-medium; IL-6R KD, IL-6R knocked down; rhIL-6, recombinant human IL-6; NS, no significance