Functional impairment in circulating and intrahepatic NK cells and relative mechanism in hepatocellular carcinoma patients.
Functional defects in natural killer (NK) cells have been proposed to be responsible for the failure of anti-tumor immune responses. Whether and how NK cells are impaired in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients remain unknown. In this study, we found that HCC patients displayed a dramatic reduction in peripheral CD56(dim)CD16(pos) NK subsets compared with healthy subjects. A significant reduction of CD56(dim)CD16(pos) NK subsets was also found in tumor regions compared with non-tumor regions in the livers of these HCC patients. Both these peripheral and tumor-infiltrating NK cells exhibited poorer capacity to produce IFN-gamma and kill K562 targets, which was further found to be associated with increased CD4(+)CD25(+) T regulatory cells as we previously-described in HCC patients. Addition of Tregs from HCC patients efficiently inhibited the anti-tumor ability of autologous NK cells in vitro. These findings are helpful for understanding the mechanism of NK cell-mediated anti-tumor immune responses in HCC patients.
Cai
Lun
L
Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.
Zhang
Zheng
Z
Zhou
Lin
L
Wang
Haiyan
H
Fu
Junliang
J
Zhang
Shuye
S
Shi
Min
M
Zhang
Hui
H
Yang
Yongping
Y
Wu
Hao
H
Tien
Po
P
Wang
Fu-Sheng
FS
D019002:CD56 Antigen / Q000276:immunology; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic; D005260:Female; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins; D006801:Humans; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000096:biosynthesis; D020014:K562 Cells; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D008099:Liver / Q000276:immunology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017452:Receptors, IgG / Q000276:immunology; D050378:T-Lymphocytes, Regulatory / Q000276:immunology
D019002:CD56 Antigen; C428200:FCGR3B protein, human; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins; D017452:Receptors, IgG; D007371:Interferon-gamma