Lohneis Philipp, Boral Sengül, Kaufmann Andreas M, Lehmann Annika, Schewe Christiane, Dietel Manfred, Anagnostopoulos Ioannis, Jöhrens Korinna
Institute of Pathology, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany,
Virchows Arch. 2015 Mar;466(3):323-31. doi: 10.1007/s00428-014-1713-4. Epub 2014 Dec 28.
Meta-analyses show that approximately half of all squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the penis are associated with a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. As data about the tumour microenvironment of HPV-positive and HPV-negative penile carcinomas is scarce and conflicting, we examined tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte populations in such cases. The HPV status of 28 penile SCCs was determined by polymerase chain reaction, while the number and distribution of different lymphocyte populations were analysed by immunohistochemistry on whole sections of paraffin-embedded tumour specimens. The average number of tumour-infiltrating T cells in HPV-associated SCC was higher than in HPV-negative SCC, and their phenotype showed strong polarization towards a T helper 1 and cytotoxic immune response. In addition, we identified more tumour-infiltrating regulatory T cells in HPV-positive carcinomas, which might represent a mechanism of immune evasion. The present study provides further evidence that the tumour microenvironment of HPV-positive carcinomas differs from that of HPV-negative carcinomas.
荟萃分析表明，阴茎鳞状细胞癌（SCC）中约有一半与人类乳头瘤病毒（HPV）感染有关。由于关于HPV阳性和HPV阴性阴茎癌肿瘤微环境的数据稀少且相互矛盾，我们研究了此类病例中的肿瘤浸润淋巴细胞群体。通过聚合酶链反应确定了28例阴茎SCC的HPV状态，同时通过免疫组织化学对石蜡包埋肿瘤标本的全切片分析了不同淋巴细胞群体的数量和分布。HPV相关SCC中肿瘤浸润T细胞的平均数量高于HPV阴性SCC，并且它们的表型表现出向辅助性T细胞1和细胞毒性免疫反应的强烈极化。此外，我们在HPV阳性癌中发现了更多的肿瘤浸润调节性T细胞，这可能代表了一种免疫逃逸机制。本研究进一步证明HPV阳性癌的肿瘤微环境与HPV阴性癌不同。
