Abstract
AIM: To investigate the local cellular immune status in the tissues of liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its relationship with the prognosis of the patients.
METHODS: Surgical specimens from 60 cases of HCC, 62 cases of LC, and 23 normal liver tissues were stained of CD3, CD57, CD20, CD68 and GrB with streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase detection system to assess the number and the distribution of hepatic local immunocytes.
RESULTS: The numbers of T lymphocytes (60.5±18.9), B lymphocytes (40.3±29.9) and NK cells (6.8±5.1) in the liver of HCC patients were significantly higher than those in the liver of LC patients (53.0±18.7, t = 2.21, P = 0.029<0.05; 21.5±18.2, t = 4.19, P = 0.000<0.01; 4.2±2.9, t = 3.53, P = 0.001<0.01, respectively) and normal controls (45.4±11.7, t = 3.57, P = 0.001<0.01; 8.1±5.9, t = 7.97, P = 0.000<0.01; 4.8±2.3, t = 2.54, P = 0.013<0.05, respectively ); while the number of macrophages (Mf)(24.6±13.4)was significantly lower than that in the liver of LC patients(41.0±13.5, t = 6.74, P = 0.000<0.01)and normal controls (40.3±8.9, t = 6.17, P = 0.000<0.01). The numbers of T and B lymphocytes in the liver of LC patients were significantly higher than those in normal controls (T cells: 53.0±18.7 vs 45.4±11.7, t = 2.23, P = 0.029<0.05; B cells: 21.5±18.2 vs 8.1±5.9, t = 5.14, P = 0.000<0.01). GrB positive cells in the liver mostly consisted of CD57 positive cells and a few CD3 positive cells. The numbers of NK cells, B lymphocytes and GrB positive cells in the cancerous tissues of stages I and II were significantly higher than that of stages III and IV (8.3±5.3 vs 5.3±4.5, t = 5.38, P = 0.024<0.05; 49.1±29.8 vs31.0±27.5, t = 2.44, P = 0.018<0.05; 6.8±5.3 vs 4.1±3.2, t = 2.32, P = 0.024<0.05, respectively). The numbers of T lymphocytes, NK cells, Mj and GrB positive cells in HCC with metastasis in 15 months were significantly lower than those without metastasis (53.1±16.0 vs 65.5±21.1, t = 2.41, P = 0.02<0.05; 2.9±3.1 vs 9.4±4.5, t = 6.33, P = 0.000<0.01; 20.9±11.3vs 30.1±14.4, t = 2.62, P = 0.012<0.05; 2.5±1.6 vs 7.0±4.3, t = 5.02, P = 0.000<0.01, respectively). The numbers of T lymphocytes, NK cells, B lymphocytes and GrB positive cells decreased gradually with the progressing of disease in the HCC patients.
CONCLUSION: The numbers of T lymphocytes, NK cells, B lymphocytes, Mf and GrB positive cells might be important markers to assess the hepatic local immune status and useful factors to predict the prognosis of HCC patients.
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