Fig. 5
T-cell polyclonal expansion is derived by effective Ag uptake and epitope spreading via CD103 + cross-presenting DCs and macrophages A–D Heatmaps displaying the mean log2-fold expression values of significantly changed genes (left; p < 0.05) in tumors upon different treatments over the treatment cycles (C1–C3). The color gradient indicates the fold increase relative to the matched control. The right heatmap shows the p values of the significant differences in the left heatmap. White represents a nonsignificant expression change compared to the matched control. Differential expression analysis was performed with Welch’s t test. n = 3–4/group/cycle. A Genes associated with cytotoxicity in tumors. B Genes associated with cell death processes—apoptosis (top), autophagy (middle) and necrosis (bottom). C Genes associated with antigen processing and presentation in tumors. D Genes associated with interferon and JAK-STAT signaling. E Violin plots show the % of CD103+cDC1 cells found in TDLNs out of the total CD45 + cells over the tested timepoints as determined by FC. The cDC1 (CD103+CD11C+CD11b−) flow cytometry gating strategy can be found in Additional file 1: Fig. S1B. F Violin plots show the % of macrophages detected in TDLNs out of the total CD45+ cells over the tested timepoints as determined by FC. E, F n = 3–4/group/cycle; timepoints are referred to as C1-C4 (cycles 1–4, respectively). Statistical significance was determined by two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001, versus the timepoint-matched control, for C4 Combo versus C215Fab-SEA