Expression of IL-10 and CXCR7 in papillary thyroid carcinoma tissues and their correlation with invasion and metastasis

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and chemokine receptor 7 (CXCR7) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) tissues and their correlation with invasion and metastasis. Methods According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 68 cases of cancer tissues (cancer tissue group) and para-cancer tissues (para-cancer tissue group) collected from PTC patients in Wenzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from Jun. 2015 to Jun. 2018 were selected. Meanwhile, pathological specimens from 32 cases of thyroid follicular adenoma patients (thyroid follicular adenoma group) undergoing thyroidectomy during the same period were also enrolled. Immunohistochemical SP staining was used to observe the expression of IL-10 and CXCR7 in different tissues, and the correlation between the expression of IL-10 and CXCR7 and the pathological characteristics of tumor was analyzed. Results The positive expression rates of IL-10 and CXCR7 in cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in para-cancer tissues and thyroid follicular adenoma group (88.24% vs. 14.71% vs. 0.00%, 75.00% vs. 32.35% vs. 15.63%; P<0.05) . Among 68 PCT patients, 38 (55.88%) had high expression of IL-10, 30 (44.12%) had low expression of IL-10, 32 (47.06%) had high expression of CXCR7, and 36 (52.94%) had low expression of CXCR7. IL-10 expression was positively correlated with tumor multifocal, TNM stage, central lymphatic metastasis, central + cervical lymphatic metastasis, invasion degree and tumor maximum diameter (r=0.486, 0.509, 0.468, 0.422, 0.629, 0.674, P<0.05) . CXCR7 expression was positively correlated with tumor multifocal, TNM staging, central lymphatic metastasis, central + cervical lymphatic metastasis, and infiltration (r=0.425, 0.563, 0.490, 0.287, 0.481, P<0.05) . Conclusions IL-10 and CXCR7 are highly expressed in cancer tissues of PTC patients, among which IL-10 expression level is closely related to tumor differentiation degree, TNM stage, cervical lymphatic metastasis, infiltration degree and tumor maximum diameter. CXCR7 is related to TNM stage, cervical lymphatic metastasis and infiltration degree, both of which may be involved in the occurrence and development of tumor. Key words: IL-10; CXCR7; Papillary thyroid carcinoma; Invasion; Central lymphatic metastasis; Cervical lymphatic metastasis