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Repertoire of peripheral T cells in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma
Author(s) -
Shan Zhongyan,
Liu Sixuan,
Yang Liu,
Liu Ziyi,
Hu Yanjia,
Yao Zhigang,
Tang Zhangui,
Fang Liangjuan,
Quan Hongzhi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
oral diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.953
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1601-0825
pISSN - 1354-523X
DOI - 10.1111/odi.13311
Subject(s) - immune system , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , flow cytometry , lymph node , phenotype , immunology , medicine , stage (stratigraphy) , metastasis , t cell , effector , cancer research , pathology , biology , cancer , in vitro , paleontology , biochemistry , gene
Background The establishment of adaptive immune responses to neoplasms involves not only the tumour tissue, but also the peripheral blood. We aimed to conduct a preliminary exploration to understand the immune response of T lymphocytes of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC‐Ts) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods A total of 103 blood samples from OSCC patients and 18 blood samples from healthy donors (HD) were analysed by flow cytometry. Results Compared to those in HD, a series of unique features of PBMC‐Ts were observed in OSCC patients including a significant increase in CD4+ T cells, a shift from naïve to memory/effector phenotype, an increased frequency of exhausted phenotypes (programmed death‐1 [PD‐1], T cell Ig and mucin protein‐3 [Tim‐3] and Tregs), an abundance of Th17s and Tc17s and an imbalance in Th17/Tc17 and Th17/Treg ratios. Furthermore, in OSCC patients, we also found that CD4+ T cells were significantly increased in patients with larger tumours than smaller tumours, memory/effector phenotype and exhausted phenotypes were significantly associated with advanced clinical stage and lymph node metastasis, and the Th17/Treg ratio was associated with early clinical stage and no lymph node metastasis. Conclusion PBMC‐Ts may be involved in the development and progression of OSCC, which suggested to be a manifestation of an immune response between host and tumour neoantigens.