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Increased Circulating Th22 and Th17 Cells are Associated with Tumor Progression and Patient Survival in Human Gastric Cancer

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Abstract

Although Th22 and Th17 cells have been reported to play critical roles during autoimmunity and inflammation, information on their role in cancer-immunity is limited. In this study, we investigated clinical relevance of circulating Th22 and Th17 cells in patients with gastric cancer (GC). Using multi-color flow cytometry and PMA stimulation, we determined the levels of Th22, Th17 and Th1 cells in the peripheral blood of 32 GC patients and 19 healthy donors, and evaluated their correlations with tumor stage and overall survival. Compared with healthy donors, the frequencies of circulating CD4+IL-22+ T cells, CD4+IL-17+ T cells, Th22 (CD4+IL-22+IL-17-INF-γ−) cells, Th17 (CD4+IL-17+INF-γ−) cells were increased in patients with GC, but there was no significant differences in the frequencies of CD4+IFN-γ+ T cells and Th1 (CD4+IL-17−INF-γ+) cells. Th22 cells showed positive correlation with Th17 cells and CD4+IL-17+ T cells in patients with GC. Furthermore, the frequencies of Th22 and Th17 cells were significantly higher in stage III–IV GC patients versus stage I–II and correlated with patients’ overall survival. These data suggest that circulating Th22 cells as well as Th17 cells are increased in the peripheral blood of GC patients with tumor progression, and that these cells may be promising novel clinical markers for GC.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 81071412) and National Basic Research Program of China (973 program, No. 2009CB522606).

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medical Laboratory Science, Third Military Medical University, No.30 Gaotanyan street, Chongqing, 400038, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Liu, Liusheng Peng, Yun Shi, Xuhu Mao, Ping Cheng, Tingting Wang, Na Chen, Jinyu Zhang, Xiaofei Liu, Na Li, Gang Guo, Wende Tong, Yuan Zhuang & Quanming Zou

  2. Department of General Surgery and Center of Minimal Invasive Gastrointestinal Surgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, No.30 Gaotanyan street, Chongqing, 400038, People’s Republic of China

    Peiwu Yu & Yongliang Zhao

  3. School of Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3085, Australia

    Weisan Chen

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  1. Tao Liu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuan Zhuang or Quanming Zou.

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Tao Liu and Liusheng Peng contributed equally to the work.

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Supplemental Fig. 1

Cytokine detection in sera. The level of TGF-β1 (a) IL-10 (b) in sera of GC patients and healthy donors were determined by ELISA. CPB, cancer peripheral blood; HPB, healthy peripheral blood; Data were expressed as box plots, in which the horizontal lines illustrate the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. Vertical lines represented the min and max. Significance between two groups was indicated by P value; P < 0.05 was considered significant. (TIFF 7671 kb)

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Liu, T., Peng, L., Yu, P. et al. Increased Circulating Th22 and Th17 Cells are Associated with Tumor Progression and Patient Survival in Human Gastric Cancer. J Clin Immunol 32, 1332–1339 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-012-9718-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-012-9718-8

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