The Relationship Between The Expression Of VEGF And Distribution Of Dendritic Cells And Regulatory T Cells In Large Cell Lung Cancer

Objective:To investigate the distribution of dendritic cells and regulatory T cells in human large cell lung cancer patients with different clinical characteristics, and compare the correlation between the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and the distribution of above2subsets.Methods:75cases of large cell lung cancer paraffin-embedded tissues treated in Tianjin Cancer Hospital from2000May to2010November, and27cases of normal adjacent tissues were collected. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor, the distribution of dendritic cells and regulatory T cells were detected by immunohistochemistry. CD1a is used as characteristic markers of of immature DCs, CD83of mature DCs markers, Foxp3of Treg cells. Then, we analyzed the correlation between them and with the clinical features.Results:Positive expression of VEGF in large cell lung cancer tissues was characterized by brown granules in cytoplasm of tumor cells and detected in71of75(94.7%) cases. The CDla+dendritic cells are of irregular shape with brown-stained cell membrane. The count of CD1a+dendritic cells per high-power field in large-cell lung cancer tissues is lower than that in adjacent normal tissues (2.271±1.159vs.3.070±1.336,P=0.005).The count of CD83+DCs in large cell lung cancer tissue was0.661±0.638per high-power field, was lower than that in adjacent normal tissues1.992±1.529per high-power field (P=0.000). Foxp3is located in the nucleus of lymphocytes in the tumor stroma. The count of Foxp3+Treg cells in tumor tissues was5.203±4.875per high-power field, was higher than that in adjacent normal tissues0.741±0.478per high-power field (P=0.000).The distribution of CD83+dendritic cells in VEGF high-expression group was significantly lower than that in VEGF low-expression group(x2=7.802, P=0.020).There was a negative correlation between the distribution of CDla+DCs and CD83+DCs (rs=-0.327, P=0.004). There was a positive correlation between the distribution of CD1a+DCs and Foxp3+Tregs in large cell lung cancer (rs=0.373,P=0.001).High distribution of CD83+DCs was related to small tumor size (x2=11.043,P=0.011).Conclusion:There is a significant difference between the distribution of immature dendritic cells, mature dendritic cells and regulatory T cell in large cell lung cancer tissue and surrounding normal tissue. High distribution of CD83+DCs was related to small tumor size. VEGF expression can affect the mature degree of dendritic cells. There was a negative correlation between the distribution of immature dendritic cells and mature dendritic cells, and a positive correlation between the distribution of immature dendritic cells and regulatory T cells. It suggested that VEGF can affect the differentiation of dendritic cells which induce Treg cells in LCLC, and thus leads to immune escape.