Impairment of monocyte functions in advanced head and neck cancer.
Depression of cell-mediated immunity is well established in most malignancies and especially in head and neck cancers, and much information is available concerning the defect in helper T lymphocyte function. We now report on impairment of the monocyte-macrophage system. Compared with normal controls we found that patients displayed, on one hand, an increased number of peripheral blood monocytes and, on the other hand, a smaller percentage of HLA-DR+ monocytes. Such peripheral blood monocytes normally failed to secrete factors, including interleukin 1 (IL-1). In addition, we observed that the in vivo induced blastogenesis of peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients, which is spontaneously depressed, is partly restored by medium containing IL-1. We cannot exclude, however, that the observed monocyte dysfunction involves other cytokines. Whether such an immune deficiency is due to secondary malnutrition or to the malignancy (or both) remains unclear.
Garraud
O
O
Laboratoire d'Immunologie, Fondation Bergonié, Bordeaux, France.
Faucher
A
A
Legrand
E
E
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007375:Interleukin-1 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
D007375:Interleukin-1