Department of Thoracic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital, Medical University of Xinjiang, 830054 Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.
World J Gastroenterol. 2011 Aug 28;17(32):3745-51. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v17.i32.3745.
To investigate the expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR) 3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry were used to analyze the expression of TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 mRNA and protein in samples from 87 esophageal cancer patients consisting of both tumor and normal tissue.
A significant increase in TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 mRNA levels was detected in ESCC samples. Tumors exhibited high TLR protein expression, (70.1%, 72.4%, 66.7% and 78.2% for TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9, respectively, P < 0.05). Nevertheless, a significant percentage of tumors also exhibited TLR4 expression in mononuclear inflammatory cells (48.3%) and TLR9 expression in fibroblast-like cells (60.9%). Tumors with high TLR3 expression in tumor cells or high TLR4 expression in mononuclear inflammatory cells were significantly associated with a higher probability of lymph node metastasis and increased depth of invasion. However, tumors with high TLR9 expression in fibroblast-like cells were associated with low probabilities of invasion and metastasis. There was no significant variation between the expression of TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 among different ethnic groups.
TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 expression appears important to the biological pathogenesis of ESCC. TLRs may represent therapeutic targets for ESCC.
研究 Toll 样受体（TLR）3、TLR4、TLR7 和 TLR9 在食管鳞状细胞癌（ESCC）中的表达。
采用逆转录-聚合酶链反应和免疫组织化学方法分析 87 例食管鳞癌患者肿瘤和正常组织中 TLR3、TLR4、TLR7 和 TLR9 mRNA 和蛋白的表达。
ESCC 组织中 TLR3、TLR4、TLR7 和 TLR9 的 mRNA 水平明显升高。肿瘤组织 TLR 蛋白表达较高（TLR3、TLR4、TLR7 和 TLR9 分别为 70.1%、72.4%、66.7%和 78.2%，P < 0.05）。然而，相当比例的肿瘤组织中单核炎性细胞 TLR4 表达（48.3%）和成纤维细胞样细胞 TLR9 表达（60.9%）也较高。肿瘤细胞 TLR3 表达高或单核炎性细胞 TLR4 表达高与淋巴结转移概率增加和浸润深度增加显著相关。然而，成纤维细胞样细胞中 TLR9 表达高与浸润和转移概率降低相关。不同种族间 TLR3、TLR4、TLR7 和 TLR9 的表达无显著差异。
TLR3、TLR4、TLR7 和 TLR9 的表达对 ESCC 的生物学发病机制很重要。TLRs 可能是 ESCC 的治疗靶点。
