High hydrostatic pressure in cancer immunotherapy and biomedicine.

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) has been known to affect biological systems for >100 years. In this review, we describe the technology of HHP and its effect macromolecules and physiology of eukaryotic cells. We discuss the use of HHP in cancer immunotherapy to kill tumor cells for generation of whole cell and dendritic cell-based vaccines. We further summarize the current use and perspectives of HHP application in biomedicine, specifically in orthopedic surgery and for the viral, microbial and protozoan inactivation to develop vaccines against infectious diseases.