The Characteristics Of TNFR2+ Regulatory T Cells From Peripheral Blood And Tumor Tissues In Gastric Cancer And Relationship With Clinicopathologic Factors

Objective:To analyze the ratio and phenotype of TNFR2(Tumor necrosis factor receptor 2)+ regulatory T cells(Tregs)in peripheral blood and tumor tissues of patients with gastric cancer.The relationship between the distribution of TNFR2 + Tregs and clinicopathological features of patients was analyzed.Methods: The expression and phenotype of TNFR2 + Tregs,TNFR2 + CD8 + in the peripheral blood of 33 cases of gastric cancer patients and 15 normal controls were detected by flow cytometry.The ratio of Foxp3+Tregs and TNFR2+Tregs was analyzed by multicolor immunofluorescence assay.We analyzed their relationship with gastric cancer stage,metastasis and other clinical indicators by clinical and pathological data.Results: Flow cytometry showed that the expression of TNFR2 in human peripheral blood Tregs was significantly higher than that in Tconvs in peripheral blood CD4 + T cell subsets of gastric cancer patients and healthy individuals(P<0.05).The proportion of TNFR2 + cells in peripheral blood Tregs cells was significantly higher in patients with gastric cancer than in normal subjects(P <0.05).Tregs and Tconvs cells expressed very low level of CTLA-4 and TIM-3 in both normal controls and gastric cancer patients.And the level of TNFR2 in CD8 + T cells was significantly higher than that in normal controls(P<0.05),but the ratio of CD8 + TNFR2-cells in gastric cancer patients and normal subjects was higher than that in CD8 + TNFR2 + cells(P<0.05).The levels of CTLA-4 and TIM-3 were very low in CD8 + TNFR2 + and CD8 + TNFR2-cells in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer and normal subjects.The expression of Foxp3 + Tregs and TNFR2 + Tregs was increased in the tumor tissue,and Foxp3 + Tregs and TNFR2 + Tregs cells showed a tendency to increase with tumor progression.The infiltration of Foxp3 + Tregs cells and TNFR2 + Tregs cells showed a poor prognosis.Conclusion: Ratio of TNFR2+ cells and expression of TNFR2 was increased in Tregs comparing with Tconvs,which indicated that TNFR2 is preferentially expressed by regulatory T cells.The proportion of TNFR2+Tregs and TNFR2+CD8+T cells was significant higher in gastric cancer patients than that in normal controls.The proportion of Foxp3 + Tregs and TNFR2 + Tregs cells in advanced patients was higher than that in early patients and suggested poor prognosis.