title: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha expression in human primary malignant malanoma and it relationship to tumor infiltration by CD3+ cells.
abstract: Optimal conditions for immunohistochemical staining of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in paraffin-embedded tissue sections were established to investigate TNF-alpha expression in human primary malignant melanomas. Seventeen malignant melanomas of the nodular (NMM) and superficially spreading (SSM) subtypes were analyzed. Twelve of these were TNF-alpha+, while 5 did not stain for the cytokine. To evaluate how TNF-alpha expression affected the immune response to the tumors, infiltration by CD3+ and mac387+ cells was investigated in NMM. TNF-alpha expression seemed to selectively affect the capability of T cells to infiltrate the tumors since TNF-alpha+ tumors were found to have significantly lower levels of infiltrating CD3+ cells, while there was no difference in numbers of mac387+ cells. These results demonstrate that TNF-alpha is variably expressed in primary malignant melanoma in vivo and that the T-cell response to TNF-alpha-expression NMM is inhibited.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology 1, Faculty of Health Sciences, University Hospital, Linkoping, Sweden.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sander
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Boeryd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017252:CD3 Complex / Q000032:analysis; D004817:Epidermis / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D017252:CD3 Complex; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha