Morphological observation of tumor infiltrating immunocytes in human rectal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the morphological characterization of tumor infiltrating dendritic cells (TIDCs) and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in human rectal cancer.


METHODS
Light and electron microscopy as well as immunohistochemistry were used to observe the distributive and morphological changes of TIDCs and TILs.


RESULTS
TIDCs were mainly located in tumor-surrounding tissue. The number of TIDCs in the earlier stage was higher than that in the later stage (P<0.01). TILs were mainly seen in adjacent tissue of cancers and tumor-surrounding tissue. There were more TILs in the earlier stage than that in the later stage (P<0.01). Under electron microscope, TIDCs were irregular in shape and exhibited many dendritic protrusions. It is not obvious that cancer cells perforated the basement membrane and TILs were arranged along the basement membrane in the earlier stage. In the later stage, it is explicit that cancer cells perforated the basement membrane and surrounded by TILs. There were contacts among TIDCs, TILs and tumor cell. One TIDCs contacted one or several TILs which clustered around TIDCs. Glycogen granules were seen between TIDCs and TILs.


CONCLUSIONS
The number of TIDCs and TILs is related with tumor progression There exist close relationships among TIDCs, TILs and tumor cell.
Department of Anatomy, Harbin Medical University, No. 194 Xuefu Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150086, Heilongjiang Province, China.
Zun-Jiang
ZJ
Xie
Li-Min
LM
Jia
Ye-Chun
YC
He
Jiang-Tao
JT
Gao
D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018450:Disease Progression; D006003:Glycogen / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000473:pathology
D006003:Glycogen