Repertoire of peripheral T cells in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

Repertoire of peripheral T cells in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma:

Abstract

Background

The establishment of adaptive immune responses to neoplasms involves not only the tumour tissue but also the peripheral blood. We aimed to conduct a preliminary exploration to understand the immune response of T lymphocytes of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC‐Ts) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Methods

A total of 103 blood samples from OSCC patients and 18 blood samples from healthy donors were analysed by flow cytometry.

Results

Compared to those in healthy donors, a series of unique features of PBMC‐Ts were observed in OSCC patients including a significant increase in CD4+ T cells, a shift from naïve to memory/effector phenotype, an increased frequency of exhausted phenotypes (PD‐1, Tim‐3 and Tregs), an abundance of Th17s and Tc17s and an imbalance in Th17/Tc17 and Th17/Treg ratios. Furthermore, in OSCC patients, we also found that CD4+ T cells were significantly increased in patients with larger tumours than smaller tumours, memory/effector phenotype and exhausted phenotypes were significantly associated with advanced clinical stage and lymph node metastasis, and the Th17/Treg ratio was associated with early clinical stage and no lymph node metastasis.

Conclusion

PBMC‐Ts may be involved in the development and progression of OSCC，which suggested to be a manifestation of an immune response between host and tumour neoantigens.