Guanti G, Massari S, Cristofaro G, Caruso M L, Porsia R, Stella A, Susca F, Tauro A, Giorgio I
Institute of Genetics, University of Bari, Italy.
Cancer Immunol Immunother. 1989;30(5):307-11. doi: 10.1007/BF01744899.
Individuals from kindred with cancer family syndrome (CFS) have an increased genetic risk for the development of adenocarcinoma of the colon as well as of several other organs. Previous studies have suggested that this high occurrence of adenocarcinoma in this as in other hereditary neoplastic syndromes may be correlated to an underlying abnormality in immunological tumor surveillance. In attempt to define a marker that might identify individuals within CFS kindred at risk of developing cancer, we determined natural killer (NK) cell number and NK cell function in affected and healthy members of a CFS family. We studied 13 cancer-affected patients, 20 unaffected but "at-risk" subjects, 20 healthy subjects and 26 normal individuals matched to the patients with colon cancer on the basis of sex and age. We determined the number of NK cells and their function concurrently, using a monoclonal antibody and a 51Cr-release assay with K562 as target cells. We found that the number of NK cells was significantly (P = 0.00004) reduced in cancer patients as compared with healthy subjects and normal controls. Of the 20 at-risk individuals 9 had levels lower than the norm, while 11 showed normal-values. Consequently, the mean percentage of NK cells of this group does not differ either from that of normal subjects or from that of cancer patients. Mean NK cell function was lower in cancer patients than in healthy members of the CFS family but the differences were not statistically significant. Therefore, the mean NK cell function per single cell, expressed as a ratio between cytotoxicity (LU) and the number of NK1-positive cells, resulted paradoxically in an increase when compared with that of normal subjects. The possible mechanisms for this dichotomy were examined.
患有癌症家族综合征（CFS）的个体患结肠癌以及其他几种器官腺癌的遗传风险增加。先前的研究表明，这种在该综合征以及其他遗传性肿瘤综合征中腺癌的高发病率可能与免疫肿瘤监测的潜在异常有关。为了确定一种可能识别CFS家族中有患癌风险个体的标志物，我们测定了一个CFS家族中受影响和健康成员的自然杀伤（NK）细胞数量和NK细胞功能。我们研究了13名癌症患者、20名未受影响但“有风险”的受试者、20名健康受试者以及26名根据性别和年龄与结肠癌患者匹配的正常个体。我们使用单克隆抗体和以K562为靶细胞的51Cr释放试验同时测定了NK细胞的数量及其功能。我们发现，与健康受试者和正常对照组相比，癌症患者的NK细胞数量显著减少（P = 0.00004）。在20名有风险的个体中，9人的水平低于正常范围，而11人的水平正常。因此，该组NK细胞的平均百分比与正常受试者或癌症患者的平均百分比没有差异。癌症患者的平均NK细胞功能低于CFS家族中的健康成员，但差异无统计学意义。因此，以细胞毒性（LU）与NK1阳性细胞数量之比表示的单个细胞的平均NK细胞功能，与正常受试者相比反而出现了增加。我们研究了这种二分法的可能机制。
