The Dynamic Affection Of Chemotherapy On CD4+CD25+Regulatory T Cells And NK Cells

Objective:To investigate the dynamic change of CD4+CD25+Regulatory T cells and NK cells before and after chemotherapy, and discuss the affection of chemotherapy on them.Methods:We here investigated the frequency of Tregs and NK cells in130patients with cancer, including lung, colorectal, breast, esophagus and stomach. Peripheral blood samples from each patient were obtained before, after1st and2nd,3rd,4th,5th chemotherapy. Meanwhile, we obtained peripheral blood sample from38healthy donators as control group. The numbers and proportions of Tregs and nature killer (NK) cells were analyzed by flow cytometry technique.Results:As case number limited, the analysis didn’t show significant difference of Tregs and NK cells between each chemotherapy. But still, our results showed some tendencies:CD4+helper T cells and CD4+CD25highCD127+regulatory T cells induced at first and then increase as chemotherapy progressed. CD8+T cells increased at first and then decreased as chemotherapy progressed. These tendencies are particularly obvious in stomach cancer and colorectal cancer patients. In lung and breast cancer patients, CD4+CD25highCD127+regulatory T cells increased at first and then decreased. NK cells, especially in lung and breast cancer patients, decreased first and then increased in chemotherapy, which is opposite to patients with stomach and colorectal.Conclusion:Chemotherapy can decrease Tregs and CD4+T cells and increase CD8+T cells, especially in stomach cancer and colorectal cancer patients. Thus, we can partly speculate that the decrease of Tregs and CD4+T cells in peripheral blood may link to the sufficiency of chemotherapy. Considered that the change of NK cells is opposite to Tregs, we suppose that there may be a possibility that Tregs in gastrointestinal cancer can suppress effective anti-tumor immune via inhibiting NK cells.