Imbalance of Treg/Th17 cells in peripheral blood of elderly patients with laryngeal cancer and its significance / 国际肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the relationship of the expression characteristics of CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + Treg cells and CD4 + IL-17 + Th17 cells and the progress of the elderly patients with laryngeal cancer.Methods Sixty elderly patients diagnosed as laryngeal cancer in our hospital from January 2013 to June 2014 were chosen.Among them,28 cases had lymph node metastasis and 32 without.Thirty cases without laryngeal diseases were chosen as control.The peripheral blood of elderly patients with laryngeal cancer and normal controls was extracted.The expression levels of Treg and Th17 cells in all groups were detected with flow cytometry,and the expression changes of Foxp3,RORγt in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) were detected with real time quantitative PCR.Results Compared with the control group,CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + Treg and CD4 + IL-17 + Th17 cell percentage,Treg and Th17 cells specific transcription factor Foxp3,RORγt expression levels in elderly laryngeal cancer patients without lymph node metastasis were significantly higher (t=9.817,P=0.018; t=12.120,P=0.009; t=6.090,P=0.023; t=7.130,P=0.028).Compared with elderly laryngeal cancer patients without lymph node metastasis,Treg and Th17 cell percentage and Foxp3,RORγt expression levels were significantly increased (t =9.070,P =0.014; t =12.140,P =0.009; t =10.130,P =0.009 ; t =13.070,P =0.008),and the ratios of Th17/Treg and Foxp3/RORγt were significantly lower (2.401 ± 0.614 vs 3.763 ± 0.959 ; 0.401 ± 0.075 vs 0.563 ± 0.091 ; t =9.070,P =0.014 ; t =11.140,P =0.007) in elderly laryngeal cancer patients with lymph node metastasis.Conclusion In elderly patients with laryngeal cancer,Treg cells and Th17 cells imbalance is positively correlated to disease progression.Therefore,monitoring and correcting the expression levels of Treg and Th17 cells may be important for the diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of the elderly patients with laryngeal cancer.