Stromal infiltration of lymphocytes and expression of immune checkpoint genes in early esophageal cancer patients with different stages
- VernacularTitle:食管早癌不同分期淋巴细胞间质浸润及免疫检查点基因表达研究
- Author:
Mingming ZHAO
1
;
Hongmei ZHAO
;
Jinping GAO
;
Xinxin LIU
Author Information
- Keywords: early esophageal cancer; lymphocyte; immune infiltration; immune checkpoint inhibitor; lymphocyte activation gene 3; programmed death ligand-2; cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associ-ated protein 4; T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-3
- From: Journal of Clinical Medicine in Practice 2025;29(17):7-12
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
- Abstract: Objective To investigate lymphocyte interstitial infiltration condition and the changes of immune checkpoint gene expression in different stages of early esophageal cancer.Methods A ret-rospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 90 patients with early esophageal cancer.Based on the pathological depth of infiltration,they were divided into three types:T1a-M1,T1a-M2,and T1a-M3,with 30 cases in each type.Additionally,30 cases of paired normal mucosa tissues adja-cent to the cancer were selected.Hematoxylin-eosin(HE)staining was used to observe tissue morpholo-gy.Immunohistochemistry was employed to detect the expression of CD3,CD4,CD8,and CD20.Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(RT-qPCR)was applied to measure the mRNA expression levels of immune checkpoint genes[programmed death ligand-1(PD-L1),cytotoxic T-lym-phocyte-associated protein 4(CTLA4),T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-3(TIM-3),lympho-cyte activation gene 3(LAG3),programmed death receptor-1(PD-1),programmed death ligand-2(PD-L2),and T-cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains protein(TIGIT)].Results As the stage of early esophageal cancer progressed,the ratio of tumor cells to lymphocytes increased.The number of CD3+T cells was greater than that of CD20+B cells,and the proportion of CD4+T cells among total T cells was higher than that of CD8+T cells(P＜0.001).The mRNA expression levels of gene in immune checkpoints in patients were elevated(P＜0.05).Compared with normal adja-cent tissues,the expression levels of PD-L1 mRNA,CTLA4 mRNA,TIM-3 mRNA,PD-1 mRNA,and TIGIT mRNA were elevated in patients with T1a-M1,T1a-M2,and T1a-M3 types(P＜0.05).Compared with normal adjacent tissues,the expression levels of LAG3 mRNA and PD-L2 mRNA were increased in patients with T1a-M2 and T1a-M3 types(P＜0.05).Conclusion The progres-sion of early esophageal cancer staging is correlated with increased immune checkpoint gene expres-sion and a decreased lymphocyte ratio,suggesting that changes in the immune microenvironment may be involved in tumor progression.
