Abstract
Liver resection remains the popular treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to explore the alteration of immune cells in HCC patients with liver resections. Nineteen patients were included and their peripheral blood samples were taken before and after liver resections for immune-cell analysis. The clinical characteristics showed that the median diameter of the resected tumors was 7.5 cm with a range from 1.4 to 16.5 cm. The analysis of immune cells showed that the percentage of CD4+ T-cells were not altered by liver resection, but the percentage of CD8+ T-cell was decreased from 31.7 ± 12.4% to 20.2 ± 10.4% at one week after liver resection (p = 0.006). For immunosuppressor cells, regulatory T-cells were not altered, but myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) were decreased from 7.75 ± 8.16% to 1.51 ± 1.32% at one month after liver resection (p = 0.022) in 10 of 19 patients with high frequency of MDSC. Furthermore, it was also found that MDSC population was linearly correlated to tumor volume. In conclusion, CD8+ T-cells and MDSC were altered by liver resection. The percentage of CD8+ T-cells was decreased by surgery, but the accumulation of MDSC was abrogated.
Highlights
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive malignancy and one of the leading causes of cancer death
This study focused on myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who received liver resection to remove the tumors
This study showed that the frequency of MDSC in peripheral blood of HCC patients was linearly correlated to tumor volume and could be calculated by a formula using tumor volume
Summary
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive malignancy and one of the leading causes of cancer death. Several therapeutic options have been applied to treat HCC according to different stages These treatment options includes surgical resection, liver transplantation, local ablation, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and systemic treatments[1,2,3,4,5]. Regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are both immunosuppressive cells and stay with cancers[10,11]. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) are a population of cells of myeloid origin, including myeloid progenitors, immature macrophages, immature granulocytes and immature dendritic cells and characterized by production of reactive oxygen, nitrogen species and arginase I to suppress immunity[10,16]. This study focused on MDSC in HCC patients who received liver resection to remove the tumors
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