The Detection Of IL-17and Foxp3in Patients With Oscc And Its Clinical Significance

Objective: The pathogenesis of tumor is associated intimately withbody`s immune state. As a functionally unique subset of t cells, regulatory tcells (treg) suppress tumor immune responses effectively through a variety ofmechanisms and play an important role in immunosuppression and tumorprogression. Foxp3, a new member of the forkhead tran-scription factor family,is the most specific protein of treg. Till present, existing studies have onlyfocused on the relationship between foxp3and immunological disease, veryfew studies have ever focused on the influences of foxp3on tumor. Recentstudies have shown foxp3not only serves as an important regulator for thedevelopment and function of treg (mainly refer to CD4~+CD25~+Treg), but alsoplays a very important role in immune escape through treg-independentpathway. Interleukin-17(IL-17) is a novel cytokine secreted by a new lineageof helper t cells (termed th17cell). It plays an important role inpro-inflammatory effect and inducing neutrophils. Recent researches foundthat IL-17over expresses in various malignancies. However, the wholeresponse is quite complex and the relationship between IL-17and foxp3is notclear, which needs to be researched deeply. This experiment investigates theexpressions of IL-17and foxp3in peripheral blood and tumors from patientswith oscc, also the T-lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood and therelationship between the expressions and clinicopathological characteristics,and further to discuss its clinical significance.Methods: The cancer tissues of40patients with primary oral squamouscell carcinoma who were treated with excision surgery and proven bypathology inspection during Sep.2011to Oct.2012in the Fourth Hospital ofHebei Medical University were selected, and were generally compared withthe normal mucosal epithelial tissue of20patients with oral benign tumor. Any anticancer therapy was not given before the operation for the40patientswith cancer, which were non acute infection period, excluding systemicdiseases. The predict site was on the tongue, cheek, palate, floor of mouth,gingiva, et al. The median age was60(range from40to72) years old, theratio of male to female was1.35:1, TNM stage:7cases of stage Ⅰ,19casesof stage Ⅱ,6cases of stage Ⅲ, and8cases of stage Ⅳ. Tissues from surgicalspecimens of the experimental group patients and control group are embeddedin paraffin, sliced, and determine the infiltration of IL-17and Foxp3with spmethod of immunohistochemistry. Collect peripheral blood specimens of allthe experimental group and control group before operation, IL-17and Foxp3expression are detected in peripheral blood by flow cytometry. Theexperimental data are statistically analyzed with SPSS13.0software, tocompare groups of different clinical stages, age, gender, and to understand thecorrelation between IL-17and Foxp3expression.Results:1Compared with normal controls, peripheral blood from patients withoscc showed higher quantification of CD~4+IL-17~+cells and CD4+Foxp3~+cellsconcentrations [(10.50±4.52)%vs (1.45±0.19)%, P<0.05;(7.02±4.54)%vs (2.73±0.60)%, P<0.05].2The quantification of CD~4+IL-17~+cells and CD4+Foxp3+cellsconcentrations in peripheral blood from patients with oscc had positivecorrelation with the clinical stage, patients with advanced disease (stageⅢ-Ⅳ)were higher than early disease (stageⅠ-Ⅱ)[(14.25±4.17)%vs (8.49±3.27)%, P<0.05;(11.16±3.64)%vs (4.79±3.24)%, P<0.05)].3IL-17quantification in peripheral blood from patients with osccshowed positive correlation with foxp3concentrations (r=0.772, P<0.05).4The CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD56+T-lymphocyte percentages inperipheral blood from patients with oscc were (63.23±4.96)%,(42.37±3.96)%,(24.46±3.86)%,(14.60±5.17)%; CD4~+/CD8~+ratio ranged from1.77±0.34. The expressions of CD3~+, CD4+and CD4~+/CD8~+radio werelower than the control groups (P<0.05). The expression of CD8+was higher than the control group (P<0.05). CD56~+had improvement in peripheral bloodfrom patients with oscc, but compared with the normal control group, it hadno significant difference (P>0.05).5The positive expression rates of IL-17, foxp3expression in oscctissues were60.0%,67.5%, which were significantly higher than those in thenormal tissues (P<0.05).6The positive expression rates of IL-17in tissues from patients withoral squamous cell carcinoma in stage Ⅲ+Ⅳ (85.7%) were obviously higherthan those of patients with this disease in stageⅠ+Ⅱ (46.2%); The positiveexpression rates of foxp3in tissues from patients with oral squamous cellcarcinoma in stage Ⅲ+Ⅳ (80.8%) were obviously higher than those ofpatients with this disease in stage Ⅰ+Ⅱ (42.9%).7IL-17quantification in oscc tissues showed positive correlation withfoxp3concentrations (r=0.386, P<0.05).8The expressions of IL-17and foxp3were not associated with the age,gender or other individual factors of the patients obviously (P>0.05).Conclusion:1There were higher expressions of IL-17and foxp3in the peripheralblood and tissues in patients with oscc, which did not correlate with age,gender, or other individual factors, but tnm stage. It is indicated that IL-17andfoxp3may play a role in the development and progression of oscc.2There was an immune suppression in patients with oscc, which mightaffect the function of IL-17.3IL-17was positively related to foxp3in oscc, and their synergisticreaction may lead to the formation of the cancers.4A new route of tumor therapy may be provided through regulating oradjusting the expressions of IL-17and foxp3by molecular andbiotechnological methods.