ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the expression of interleukin-9 (IL-9) in colon cancer tissues and its clinical significance.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Immunohistochenmistry and qRT-PCR were used to detect the expressions of IL-9 protein and mRNA in 92 colon cancer tissues and paired adjacent normal tissues. The correlation of IL-9 expressions with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of the patients was analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>IL-9 protein and mRNA expressions were significantly higher in adjacent normal tissues than in the colon cancer tissues ( < 0.001). In colon cancer patients, IL-9 expression was significantly correlated with TNM stage (=0.013), Ducks stage (=0.025) and lymph node metastasis (=0.004) but not with gender, age, tumor size, differentiation or hepatic metastasis ( > 0.05). The survival time of colon cancer patients with positive IL-9 expression was significantly longer than that of patients negative for IL-9 expression (=0.015).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>IL-9 expression is lowered in colon cancer tissues compoved with in the adjacent normal tissues. IL-9 expression is negatively correlated with TNM staging, Ducks staging and lymph node metastasis but positively with good prognosis, suggesting its important role in the tumor microenvironment of colon cancer.</p>
ABSTRACT
Objective CD4 +IL-17 +cells are a group of newly discovered effector CD4 +T cells, which may play a key role in the pathogenesis of cancer.This study aims to investigate the expres-sion of CD4 +IL-17 +cells in pancreatic cancer and its correlation with the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of the dis-ease as well as the clinical significance of the cells in the microenvironment of pancreatic cancer. Methods We collected tumor tis-sue and tumor-adjacent normal tissue samples from 51 pancreatic cancer patients.We determined the expressions of CD34 and vascular endothelial growth factor ( VEGF) and measured the proportion of IL-17 +cells in the cancer tissue using immunohistochemistry and the fluorescence activated cell sorter, respectively, followed by analysis of their correlation with tumor angiogenesis, clinicopathological pa-rameters, and survival time of the patients. Results The percentage of CD4 +IL-17 +cells in tumor tissue was positively correlated with microvessel density (r =0.534, P0.05).Fifty (98.0%) of the patients were successfully followed up for 2-67 months, which revealed a median survival time of 16.6 ±4.8 months, significantly longer in those with a higher expression of intratumoral IL-17 +cells (P<0.05).Univariate analysis showed an association of the survival rate with the tumor size, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, and level of intratumoral IL-17 +cells, while multivariate analysis showed the TNM stage to be an independent prognostic factor for the survival of the pancreatic cancer patients. Conclusion The expression of CD4 +IL-17 +cells in the tumor tissue is positively correlated with tumor angiogenesis, while that of IL-17 +cells with the clinicopathological parameters and survival time of the patients and therefore may serve as an important immune indicator for the prognosis of pancreatic cancer.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effects and mechanisms of the CXCR3-inhibitor genistein on the acute rejection reaction of pancreas transplantation in a rat model. Methods Three groups of rats underwent pancreas transplantation, group one: the syngeneic transplantation group; group two: heterogous transplantation group without genistein-treatment; and group three: genistein-treatment (10 mg/kg,i. p.×7d) transplantation group. The grafts of three groups were harvested at day 7 after operation for histopathology and immunohistochemistry analysis of CXCR3, the serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-2 were examined by ELISA. Results There was no acute rejection reaction of pancreas transplantation in group one and no expression of CXCR3 ,the serum levels of IFN-γ,IL-2 were (2.76±0.66) pg/ml and (11.83±1.86) pg/ml. In group two, there was significant acute rejection reaction and strong expression of CXCR3, the serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-2 were (32.64±2.52) pg/ml and (29.59±1.71 ) pg/ml, which were significantly higher than those in group one (P<0.05). Compared with group two, the damages of graft tissue in genistein-treatment group alleviated and the lymphocytes infiltration decreased, the expression of CXCR3 was weakly positive, the serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-2 were (15.94±1.95) pg/ml and (22.62±1.76) pg/ml, which were significantly lower than those in group two(P<0.05), but was higher than those in group one (P<0.05). Conclusions Genistein could mitigate the acute rejection of pancreas transplantation effectively through inhibiting CXCR3 expression.
