The Regulatory T Cells Level And Clinical Significance In The Patients With Colorectal Carcinoma

Objective To investigate the variation of CD4~+CD25~+regulatory T cells (Tregs)in colorectal carcinoma, and detect the expression of forkhead/winged helixtranscription factor (Foxp3), the specific marker of Tregs in lymphatic tissue ofcolorectal carcinoma, to explore the effects of Tregs on tumor immunity.Methods Peripheral blood were collected from 30 colorectal carcinoma patientson the 7th day before operation and the 14th day after operation, as control, peripheralblood from 11 healthy adults were also collected. Flowing cytometry was applied toanalyze Tregs and CD4~+or CD8~+ T cells. SABC stained immunohistochemisteryqualitative analysis was performed to determine the expression of Foxp3 in lymphatictissue harvested from samples of resected colorectal carcinoma. The results werecombinded with clinical data for statistic analysis.Results1. The percentage in peripheral blood of colorectal carcinoma patients issignificantly higher than that in control group. There is no significant difference ofCD4~+ T cells between the two groups.2. In colorectal carcinoma patients, the percentage of CD8~+ T cells in peripheralblood negatively correlated with the percentage of Tregs.3. In colorectal carcinoma patients, the level of Tregs in postoperative peripheralblood is significantly higher than that before operation. Compared to the controlgroup, there is no significant difference of the percentage of Tregs in peripheral bloodafter operation.4. In colorectal carcinoma patients, the percentage of Tregs in peripheral blood iscorrelative with lymphatic metastasis and TNM staging, but uncorrelated withhistomorphological differentiation, location, histopathological type or depth invasion of the tumor.5. Expression of Foxp3 is correlated with lymphatic metastasis, but is unrelatedwith the TNM staging, histopathological differentiation, histomorphological type orinvasive depth of the tumor.Conclusion1. The percentage of Tregs in peripheral blood increases significantly in patientsof colorectal carcinoma, which indicates a probable mechanism that compromise thecellular immune function.It will help to improve the effect of immunotherapy againsttumor to adjust the quantities of this type of cells effectively.2. The percentage of Tregs in peripheral blood of patients with colorectalcarcinoma is correlative with lymphatic metastasis and TNM staging, which suggeststhe possibility that Tregs is related to the development, invasiveness and metastasis oftumor.3. There is specific upregulated expression of Foxp3 in lymphatic nodes aroundcolorectal carcinoma, correlated with the function of Tregs, and suggested it could berelated to immune response to the tumor in viro.