Study On Correlation Between T Cells Senescence And Non-small Cell Lung Cancer In Elderly

Objective: To investigate the relationship between age-related changes of CD28 and CD95 on T lymphocytes and the development of primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in elderly.Methods: The protein and mRNA expression of CD28 and CD95 in peripheral blood of 63 elderly patients with NSCLC aged≥60 years were measured by five-color flow cytometric immunofluorescence assay and fluorescent quantitation real-time polymerase chain reaction. 35 elderly patients with lung benign lesion, 30 elderly healthy donors, 30 young healthy donors, 20 young patients with lung benign lesion and 20 young patients with NSCLC were enrolled as controls. Meanwhile, the relationship between CD28/CD95 and clinical characteristics of NSCLC in elderly was analysed with statistics.Results:1. Our results showed decreased protein and mRNA expression of CD28 (P<0.01) on T cells and increased proteion and mRNA of CD95 (P<0.01) in peripheral blood of all elderly patients with NSCLC compared with the other groups. The protein and mRNA expression of CD28 in elderly healthy donors was significantly lower than those in young healthy donors and young patients with lung benign lesion, but the expression CD95 of young healthy donors were significantly higher than those in young healthy donors and young patients with lung benign lesion. There were no significantly statistic differences in expression of CD28 and CD95 between elderly healthy donors and elderly patients with lung benign lesion.2. Logistic regression analysis showed that the increased risk for lung cancer were significantly associated with aging (OR=2.432), down-regulation of CD28 mRNA (OR=0.389) and up-regulation of CD95 mRNA (OR=2.796), and the mRNA expression of CD28 had significant negative correlation with the mRNA expression of CD95 (r = -0.373, P<0.01).3. In the elderly patients with NSCLC, the protein and mRNA expression of CD28 and CD95 on T cells in peripheral blood was closely associated with TNM stages, grade of cell differentiation and lymph node metastasis status (P<0.05), but not related to pathological types (P>0.05).Conclusions: The down-regulation of CD28 and up-regulation of CD95 with age on T cells in peripheral blood play an important role in the oncogenesis and development of primary NSCLC in elderly.