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Ovarian tissue is inadvertently excised together with the endometrioma wall in most cases. The excised tissue is at normal functional development stages only near the ovarian hilus. The different techniques used do not influence significantly the quality of the resected tissue.

Prior surgery, presence of adhesions, and ovulation drugs are negative prognostic factors. Pregnancy has a protective effect on disease and pain recurrence.

Dendritic cells (DCs) sense the microenvironment through several types of receptors recognizing pathogen-associated molecular patterns. In particular, C-type lectins, expressed by distinct subsets of DCs, recognize and internalize specific carbohydrate antigen in a Ca 2+ -dependent manner. Targeting of these receptors is becoming an efficient strategy of delivering antigens in DC-based anticancer immunotherapy. Here we investigated the role of the macrophage galactose type C-lectin receptor (MGL), expressed by immature DCs (iDCs), as a molecular target for α-N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc or Tn)-carrying tumor-associated antigens to improve DC performance. MGL expressed by ex vivo-generated iDCs from healthy donors was engaged by a 60-mer MUC1 9Tn -glycopeptide as a Tn-carrying tumor-associated antigen, and an anti-MGL antibody, as a specific MGL binder. We demonstrated that MGL engagement induced homotrimers and homodimers, triggering the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1,2 (ERK1,2) and nuclear factor-κB activation. Analysis of DC phenotype and function demonstrated that MGL engagement improved DC performance as antigen-presenting cells, promoting the upregulation of maturation markers, a decrease in phagocytosis, an enhancement of motility, and most importantly an increase in antigen-specific CD8 + T-cell activation. These results demonstrate that the targeting of MGL receptor on human DCs has an adjuvant effect and that this strategy can be used to design novel anticancer vaccines. Keywords: C-type lectins · Dendritic cells · Macrophage galactose-type C-type lectin (MGL) · MUC1 · Tn-tumor associated antigens IntroductionDendritic cells (DCs), as professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs), sense the microenvironment through different types of Correspondence: Prof. Marianna Nuti e-mail: marianna.nuti@uniroma1.it receptors to scan local environmental changes and eliminate incoming pathogens [1]. They play an essential role in the uptake of self-or pathogen-associated antigens, thus, steering and directing the immune response. After activation, DCs migrate to the draining lymph nodes, where they initiate specific immunity * These authors contributed equally to this work. The most important molecules from the CLR family include macrophage galactose type C-lectin (MGL), dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing non-integrin (DC-SIGN), the mannose receptor, DEC205, and Dectin-1. These receptors are able to trigger distinct signaling pathways that modulate DC functions through the expression of specific molecules and cytokines, determining the polarization of T cells [4]. These properties make this C-type lectin family an optimal tool for DC targeting in cancer vaccination. Human MGL (hMGL) is a type II C-type lectin, expressed in vitro by macrophages and monocyte derived DCs and in vivo by DCs of skin and lymph nodes [5,6]. Its carbohydrate recognition domains contain a QPD sequence that is responsible for recognition of α-or β-N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc, Tn) res...

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