Detection And Clinical Significance Of CD4~+CD25~+FOXP3~+ Regulatory T Cells In Esophageal Cancer Patients

Background and Objective:CD4~+CD25~+FOXP3~+ regulatory T cells(Treg cells),with distinct effect on immunoregulation,have immune suppressive action on Tumor-responsive T cells,which can mediate immune tolerance and escape to tumor.It has been discovered that Treg cells in peripheral blood and some malignant tumor microenvironment increase considerably and have relation to bad prognosis,but the effect of Treg cells in esophageal cancer is still unknown.To find out the relationship among Treg cells,the clinical data and pathological characteristics and to study its clinical significance by detecting the changes of Treg cells in esophageal cancer patients.Method:①30 esophageal cancer patients and 16 healthy people as controls came into our research.The venous blood of specimen was separated into mononuclear cells.Flow cytometry(FCM)was used to check CD4,CD25 and FOXP3 expression,and then the proportion of CD4~+CD25~+FOXP3~+T cells/CD4~+T cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs)was analyzed.②FOXP3 was detected on T cells from tumor-draining lymph node of 30 esophageal cancer patients and 5 controls by immunohistochemistry method.③Clinical data and pathological characteristics of cancer patients were collected,and multiple linear regression was used to analyze the relationship between the proportion of Treg cells in PBs and clinical data and pathological characteristics.Results:①The proportion of CD4~+CD25~+ FOXP3~+T cells/CD4~+T cells in PBMCs from esophageal cancer patients was significantly higher than that of controls(P＜0.01).②FOXP3~+ T cells in tumor-draining lymph node of cancer group is higher than that of controls(p＜0.05).Further analysis find that there was no significant difference between cancer group without metastasis and control group(p＞0.05),but there was significant difference between cancer group with metastasis and control group(p＜0.05).③The proportion of Treg cells in PB has no significant difference with sex,age,location of tumor,category of pathology and the infiltrating depth of tumor(p＞0.05).The proportion of Treg cells in peripheral blood of cancer patients was correlated significantly with lymph node metastasis and stages of TNM(classification of tumor,nodes, metastasis)(p＜0.05).Conclusion:The proportion of Treg cells in Peripheral Blood of esophageal cancer and tumor-draining lymph node rises evidently.The rising level of Treg cells indicates that Treg cells may play a proper role in pathogens of esophageal cancer.Detection of Treg cells has clinical value on correct evaluation of development and prognosis of esophageal cancer.