Somayeh Rezaeifard; Akbar Safaei; Abdolrasoul Talei; Zahra Faghih; Nasrollah Erfani
Abstract
Background: NK (natural killer) and NKT (natural killer T) cells, as components of innate immune system, play a crucial role in tumor progression and dissemination. Objective: To investigate the percentages of NK cells, NKT cells, iNKT (invariant natural killer T) cells, total T lymphocytes as well as ...
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Background: NK (natural killer) and NKT (natural killer T) cells, as components of innate immune system, play a crucial role in tumor progression and dissemination. Objective: To investigate the percentages of NK cells, NKT cells, iNKT (invariant natural killer T) cells, total T lymphocytes as well as activated T lymphocytes, in tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLNs) of patients with breast cancer (BC) and their association with different clinic-pathological features of the patients. Methods: Axillary lymph nodes were obtained from 30 Iranian women with breast cancer. After routine pathological evaluations, mononuclear cells were separated from their lymph nodes and incubated with appropriate fluorochrome conjugated monoclonal antibodies specific for CD3, HLA-DR, CD16/56, and Vα24Jα18-TCR. Data were collected on a four-color flow cytometer and analyzed by CellQuest software. Results: The mean percentages of NK (CD3-CD16/56+), NKT (CD3+CD16/56+) and iNKT (Vα24Jα18-TCR+) cells in TDLNs mononuclear cells of BC patients were 2.04%, 2.44% and 0.1%, respectively. A significant decrease in the percentages of NK and iNKT subsets in patients with grade I was observed compared to grade III (p=0.03 and p=0.01, respectively). Moreover, NK cells were increased in patients with grade III of BC compared to grade II (p= 0.003). Conclusion: The increase in the percentage of NK and iNKT cells in TDLNs of patients with higher grade of BC might suggest a suppressive phenotype for these cells in breast cancer, which merit more functional investigation.
Mohsen Arabpour; Atri Ghods; Mahmoud Shariat; Abodl-Rasoul Talei; Fereshteh Mehdipour; Abbas Ghaderi
Abstract
Background: B cells can increase the expression of granzyme B in CD8+ T cells through 4-1BBL/4-1BB interaction and promote anti-tumor immunity. Objective: To investigate the expression of 4-1BBL on B cells in the breast tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLNs) and its association with disease parameters. Methods: ...
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Background: B cells can increase the expression of granzyme B in CD8+ T cells through 4-1BBL/4-1BB interaction and promote anti-tumor immunity. Objective: To investigate the expression of 4-1BBL on B cells in the breast tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLNs) and its association with disease parameters. Methods: Using Ficoll-Hypaque gradient centrifugation, mononuclear cells were isolated from axillary lymph nodes of 42 patients. Cells received 4 hours of PMA/Ionomycin stimulation, in vitro. Both unstimulated and stimulated cells were stained with anti‒CD19 and anti‒4-1BBL antibodies and subjected to flow cytometry. Results: 4-1BBL expression was detected on 2.8 ± 1.7% of unstimulated B cells, while 27.4 ± 11.9% of B cells expressed this co-stimulatory molecule following stimulation. In steady state, the percentage of 4-1BBL+ B cells was not associated with cancer characteristics. However, in patients with invasive ductal carcinoma, the percentage of 4-1BBL expressing B cells in stimulated condition had a decreasing trend in grade III, compared to grade II+I. In addition, significantly higher frequency of 4-1BBL+ B cells was seen in the TDLNs of ER+ or PR+ compared with ER‒ or PR‒ patients (p=0.021 and p=0.015, respectively). No significant associations were observed between the frequency of 4-1BBL+ B cells and the number of involved LNs, Her2 expression or disease stage. Conclusions: The frequency of 4-1BBL+ B cells significantly increased following a short time activation, and showed relative and significant associations with tumor grade and estrogen receptor status, respectively. More investigations are required to evaluate the potential of 4-1BBL+ B cells for use in immunotherapy.