Effector T cell subclasses associate with tumor burden in neurofibromatosis type 1 patients

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• 作者：Said Farschtschi ; Su-Jin Park ; Birgit Sawitzki…
• 关键词：Neurofibromatosis type 1 ; Immune phenotype ; T cell ; Plexiform neurofibroma ; Whole ; body MRI
• 刊名：Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：September 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：65
• 期：9
• 页码：1113-1121
• 全文大小：819 KB
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Biomedicine
  Cancer Research
  Immunology
  Oncology
  
• 出版者：Springer Berlin / Heidelberg
• ISSN：1432-0851
• 卷排序：65

文摘

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a hereditary tumor syndrome caused by mutations of the NF1 gene and resulting dysregulation of the Ras-pathway. In addition to peripheral nerve tumors, affected tissues include the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular system. The immune system has recently been suggested as a possible modulator NF1-related phenotypes. Therefore, we determined the immune phenotype in NF1 patients and investigated its relationship with the phenotypic severity of NF1-related tumor manifestations. We quantified global leukocytes and lymphocyte subpopulations of peripheral blood from 37 NF1 patients and 21 healthy controls by flow cytometry. To associate immune phenotype with tumor phenotype, all NF1 patients underwent whole-body magnetic resonance imaging and total internal tumor volume was calculated. The immunophenotypes were compared among four NF1 groups with different total internal tumor burdens and between NF1 patients and non-NF1 subjects. We found that NF1 patients show a generalized lymphopenia. Closer analysis revealed that the CD8+/CD27− and CD8+/CD57+ effector T cell fractions strongly increase in NF1 patients with low tumor load and decrease to levels below control in patients with high tumor load. Moreover, increased production of IL2, IFN-γ and TNF-α was found in T cells of NF1 patients upon phorbol-12-myristate acetate (PMA) stimulation compared to healthy controls. The data indicate that decreasing CD8+/CD57+ and CD27− T cell fractions correspond to increasing tumor load in NF1 patients, potentially making these populations useful marker for internal tumor burden.