Qi and Blood Deficiency Contributes to Peripheral T-Cell Dysfunction and Reduced Natural Killer Cell Activity in Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Gastric Cancer (GC), a major cause of cancer-related mortality, is susceptible to invasion and metastasis, which triggers dismal prognosis. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) exerts a pivotal role in various cancers, including GC. Correct syndrome differentiation is the most important principle guiding the treatment strategy. Here in, the present study aims to explore the relationship of different TCM syndrome types of GC patients and the cellular immune function, which was evaluated by observing peripheral T-cell subsets and activity of Natural Killer (NK) cells. GC patients and healthy controls were enrolled in this study, with venous blood during fasting collected. Patients with deficiency syndromes exhibited decreased number of CD4+ T-cells, ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T-cells and the activity of NK cells as compared with those with sufficiency syndromes. Then, the relationship between TCM syndrome types and TNM classification was analyzed, which revealed that TCM syndrome types were associated with TNM classification. Finally, we evaluated the number of T-cell subsets and NK cell activity in peripheral blood by means of flow cytometry and Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay. GC patients with qi and blood deficiency showed reduced CD4+ T-cells, CD4+/CD8+ T-cells and NK cell activity and increased CD8+ T-cells when compared with other syndrome types, which indicated significantly impaired cellular immune function. Taken together, we concluded that peripheral T-cell subsets and NK cell activity, representing the cellular immune function, were associated with different TCM syndrome types of GC. Notably, qi and blood deficiency led to the most severe cellular immune dysfunction of the GC patients.