Omatsu Mutsuko, Kunimura Toshiaki, Mikogami Tetsuya, Shiokawa Akira, Nagai Tomoko, Masunaga Atsuko, Kitami Akihiko, Suzuki Takashi, Kadokura Mitsutaka
Department of Clinico-diagnostic Pathology, Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital, 35-1 Chigasaki-chuo, Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama, 224-8503, Japan.
Department of Clinico-diagnostic Pathology, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Diagn Pathol. 2014 Dec 14;9:215. doi: 10.1186/s13000-014-0215-7.
In a number of human malignancies, tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are closely involved in tumor progression. On the other hand, dendritic cells (DCs) that infiltrate tumor tissues are involved in tumor suppression. However, there have been very few reports on the distribution profiles of TAMs and DCs in thymic epithelial tumors. We examined the difference in the distribution profiles between TAMs and DCs in thymoma and thymic carcinoma.
We examined 69 samples of surgically resected thymic epithelial tumors, namely, 16 thymic carcinomas and 53 thymomas, in which we immunohistochemically evaluated the presence of TAMs using CD68 and CD163 as markers and DCs using S100 as the marker in tumor tissue samples in comparison with normal thymic tissues.
The percentage of samples with a large number of CD68+ TAMs was not significantly different between thymic carcinoma and thymoma (7/16 versus 16/53, p = 0.904). However, the percentage of sample with a large number of CD163+ TAMs was significantly higher in thymic carcinoma than in thymoma (15/16 versus 34/53, p = 0.024). In contrast, the percentage of samples with a large number of S100+ DCs was significantly lower in thymic carcinoma than in thymoma (2/16 versus 23/53, p = 0.021).
To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to show a high percentage of CD163+ TAMs and a low percentage of S100+ DCs in thymic carcinoma samples, and our findings may provide an idea for future targeted therapeutic strategies for thymic carcinoma using antibodies that inhibit monocyte differentiation to TAMs, thereby skewing TAMs differentiation toward DCs.
The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/13000_2014_215.
在许多人类恶性肿瘤中，肿瘤相关巨噬细胞（TAM）与肿瘤进展密切相关。另一方面，浸润肿瘤组织的树突状细胞（DC）参与肿瘤抑制。然而，关于TAM和DC在胸腺上皮肿瘤中的分布情况的报道非常少。我们研究了胸腺瘤和胸腺癌中TAM和DC分布情况的差异。
我们检查了69例手术切除的胸腺上皮肿瘤样本，即16例胸腺癌和53例胸腺瘤，在肿瘤组织样本中，我们使用CD68和CD163作为标志物免疫组化评估TAM的存在情况，使用S100作为标志物评估DC的存在情况，并与正常胸腺组织进行比较。
胸腺癌和胸腺瘤中大量CD68 + TAM的样本百分比无显著差异（7/16对16/53，p = 0.904）。然而，大量CD163 + TAM的样本百分比在胸腺癌中显著高于胸腺瘤（15/16对34/53，p = 0.024）。相反，大量S100 + DC的样本百分比在胸腺癌中显著低于胸腺瘤（2/16对23/53，p = 0.021）。
据我们所知，我们首次发现胸腺癌样本中CD163 + TAM的百分比高，S100 + DC的百分比低，我们的发现可能为未来使用抑制单核细胞向TAM分化的抗体治疗胸腺癌的靶向治疗策略提供思路，从而使TAM的分化偏向DC。
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