Clinical significance of changes in levels of peripheral blood T lymphocyte and IL-21 protein expression

WANG Yan; ZHAO Ying-hai; WANG Xiao-mei; CHENG Zhi-qiang; LIU Han-yong; WU Min-hua; GAN Si-yuan; ZHAO Li-rong

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2014.18.002

Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical significance of changes in levels of IL-21 protein and peripheral blood T lymphocyte in carcinoma tissues of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma ( NPC) and to initially dicuss the rela-tionship between latent infection of EBV and cellular immunity of nasopharyngeal microenvironment and peripheral blood . Methods The peripheral blood CD 3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD2+5 T lymphocyte subsets were detected by flow cytometry in 29 ca-ses of NPC patients without radiotherapy ( group A ) , 34 cases of NPC patients with radiotherapy ( group B ) , 7 cases of EBV-VCA-IgA positive people ( group C) and 28 cases of EBV-VCA-IgA negative people ( control group ) .Immunohisto-chemistry was adopted to detect IL-21 protein expression in 52 cases of NPC tissues and 15 cases of chronic nasopharyngitis tissues and the relationship between IL-21 protein expression and the clinicopathological parameters was analyzed .Results The percentages of peripheral blood CD 3+, CD4+T lymphocytes, the ratio of CD4+/CD8+, and the percentage of CD8+in the group A were higher than the other three groups (all P<0.05).The percentage of CD2+5 T lymphocytes in the group A and B was higher than that of the group C and the control group (all P<0.05).The positive expression rate of IL-21 in the NPC tissues was higer than that of chronic rhinitis mucosa (P<0.05).The positive expression rate of IL-21 in the I +II stage NPC tissues of patients was higher than that in stage III +IV, and the positive expression rate of IL-21 of high-differ-entiated adenocarcinoma was also higher than that of low-differentiated adenocarcinoma (all P<0.05).Conclusion The expression of IL-21 protein in the NPC tissues of NPC patients is up-regulated , and peripheral blood T cell percentage in-creases, both of which are associated with the pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma .