Clinical significance of soluble form of HLA class I molecule in Japanese patients with pancreatic cancer.
In recent studies a soluble form of human leukocyte antigen class I (sHLA-I) has been found in blood, urine, ascitic fluid, and various other tissues. Research has been focused on the role of sHLA-I in the induction of immunotolerance in organ transplantation. To examine the role of sHLA-I in the immune system of patients with malignancy, we examined serum sHLA-I levels in patients with pancreatic, biliary, hepatic malignancy, and other diseases. We examined sHLA-I levels in the sera of patients with pancreatic cancer (n = 19), benign biliary disease and chronic pancreatitis (n = 20), hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 51), gallbladder cancer (n = 6), cholangiocellular carcinoma (n = 6), and in normal controls (n = 22), using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In patients with pancreatic cancer we also analyzed the relationship between sHLA-I and CA19-9, and the specificity and sensitivity of sHLA-I. When patients with acute or chronic hepatitis were excluded from analysis, the mean sHLA-I level in patients with pancreatic cancer was significantly higher than that of normal controls (p < 0.01) and patients with benign disease (p < 0.01), hepatocellular carcinoma (p < 0.01), gallbladder cancer (p < 0.05), and cholangiocarcinoma (p < 0.05). We determined a serum sHLA-I cutoff level for normal controls of 2000 ng/ml; serum levels of sHLA-I were higher than the cutoff in ten patients with pancreatic cancer, and serum levels of CA19-9 were lower than 37 IU/l in 9 of 14 patients; sensitivity and specificity were 88.2% and 85.5%, respectively. Serum levels of sHLA-I in pancreatic cancer patients were higher than in the other diseases, although we found that pancreatic cancer cell lines did not produce the sHLA-I. The evaluation of serum sHLA-I levels could have clinical significance in pancreatic cancer.
Shimura
T
T
Department of Surgery 1, Gunma University School of Medicine, Japan. tshimura@showa.gunma-u.ac.jp
Tsutsumi
S
S
Hosouchi
Y
Y
Kojima
T
T
Kon
Y
Y
Yonezu
M
M
Kuwano
H
H
D015415:Biomarkers; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen / Q000097:blood; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D012995:Solubility
D015415:Biomarkers; D018395:CA-19-9 Antigen; D015395:Histocompatibility Antigens Class I