Circulating and Tumor-Infiltrating Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cell Subset in Chinese Patients with Extranodal NK/T Cell Lymphoma

oleh: Rou-Jun Peng, Zhou-Feng Huang, Yi-Lan Zhang, Zhong-Yu Yuan, Yi Xia, Wen-Qi Jiang, Yi-Xin Zeng, Jiang Li

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Ivyspring International Publisher 2011-01-01

Deskripsi

<p>Foxp3<sup>+</sup> regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs) usually act as an immune suppressor and correlate with poorer survival in malignancies. This study aims to investigate the distribution and characterization of Foxp3<sup>+</sup> subset in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and tumor tissues from extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma (ENKTL). Our study showed the percentage of Foxp3<sup>+</sup> subset from PBMC was significantly higher than that of healthy individuals (P&#60;0.001). The Foxp3<sup>+</sup> subset from PBMCs expressed CD45RO, CTLA4, GITR, CCR7, and had an IL-10<sup>high</sup>IFN&#947;<sup>+</sup>TGF&#946;<sup>+</sup>IL-2<sup>low</sup>IL-17<sup>low</sup> cytokine secreting phenotype. Interestingly, the existence of EBV antigen-specific CD8<sup>+</sup>Foxp3<sup>+</sup> Tregs was discovered in ENKTL. Furthermore, the high density of Foxp3<sup>+</sup> TILs was associated with improved progression-free survival (PFS) in ENKTL patients (P&#60;0.05). Collectively, our study implicates that EBV antigens could induce antigen-specific CD8<sup>+</sup>Foxp3<sup>+</sup> Tregs in ENKTL, and Foxp3<sup>+</sup> TILs is an independent factor for PFS in ENKTL.</p>