RESUMEN
Objective To investigate the implications of ratio of the CD4+ and CD25+ positive regulatory T cells (CD4+CD25+Tregs) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and its associated regulatory factors such as forkhead transcription factor 3 (Foxp3) mRNA transcriptional activity in PBMC,serum levels of transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1),and interleukin 10 (IL-10) in the immunopathology of patients with middle to late staged nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) based on a clinical trial.Methods In this study,18 NPC cases at middle to late stage as observing group and 10 healthy persons as control group were included to detect their ratio of the CD4+CD25+Tregs in the PBMC with flow cytometry (FCM) technique,transcriptional activity of Foxp3 with RT-PCR procedure,and serum levels of TGF-β1 and IL-10 with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method.A comparative analysis was used to explore their implications in the immunopathological correlation of NPC cases with their lesion.Results The ratio of the CD4+CD25+Tregs to total CD4+T cells in PBMC was significantly increased [(4.23 ±0.53)％ vs (2.65 ±0.31)％,t =8.60,P ＜0.01],accompanied with significantly elevated levels of Foxp3 transcription in PBMC (3.699 ± 0.309 vs 1.109 ± 0.146,t' =31.08,P ＜ 0.05],and serum contents of TGF-β1 [(645.56 ± 39.61) pg/ml vs (488.82 ± 36.91) pg/ml,t =10.27,P ＜ 0.01] and IL-10 [(1.27 ± 0.21) pg/ml vs (0.68 ± 0.08) pg/ml,t' =10.61,P ＜ 0.05] in these patients,when compared with that of healthy controls.Conclusions It may be true that CD4 + CD25 + Tregs,transcriptional regulatory factor Foxp3,and cytokines TGF-β1 as well as IL-10 altogether were composed of a regulating system in a positive feedback way to promote the developing process of immunotolerance phenomena in the tumor microenvironment and the initiation of immunoescape among patients with middle to late staged nasopharyngeal carcinoma.