The Diagnostic Significance of CXCL13 in M2 Tumor Immune Microenvironment of Human Astrocytoma.

CXCL13 may act as a mediator of tumor-associated macrophage immunity during malignant progression. The present study clarifies the clinicopathological significances of CXCL13 and its corresponding trend with M2 macrophage in human astrocytoma. The predictive potential of CXCL13 was performed using 695 glioma samples derived from TCGA lower-grade glioma and glioblastoma (GBMLGG) dataset. CXCL13 and M2 biomarker CD163 were observed by immunohistochemistry in 112 astrocytoma tissues. An in-depth analysis showed that expression was related to the poor prognosis of glioma patients ( = 0.0002) derive from TCGA analysis. High level of CXCL13 was detected in 43 (38.39%) astrocytoma and CXCL13/CD163 coexpression was expressed in 33 (29.46%) cases. The immunoreactivities of CXCL13 and CXCL13/CD163 were found in the malignant lesions, which were both significantly associated with grade, patient survival, and IDH1 mutation. Single CXCL13 and CXCL13/CD163 coexpression predicted poor overall survival in astrocytoma ( = 0.0039 and = 0.0002, respectively). Multivariate Cox regression analyses manifested CXCL13/CD163 phenotype was a significant independent prognostic indicator of patient outcome in astrocytoma (CXCL13, = 0.0642; CXCL13/CD163, = 0.0368). CXCL13 overexpression is strongly linked to CD163+ M2 infiltration in malignant astrocytoma. CXCL13/CD163 coexpression would imply M2c-related aggressive characteristics existing in astrocytoma progression could also provide predictive trends of patient outcomes.