Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China.
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial-Head and Neck Oncology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
BMC Oral Health. 2023 Jun 3;23(1):356. doi: 10.1186/s12903-023-03043-6.
Cervical lymph node metastasis is one of the poorest prognostic factors in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Activated immune cells generally have metabolic abnormalities in the tumour microenvironment. However, it is unknown whether abnormal glycolysis in T cells could facilitate metastatic lymph nodes in OSCC patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of immune checkpoints in metastatic lymph nodes and determine the correlation between glycolysis and immune checkpoint expression in CD4 T cells.
Flow cytometry and immunofluorescence staining were used to analyse the differences in CD4 PD1 T cells between metastatic lymph nodes (LN) and negative lymph nodes (LN). RT‒PCR was performed to detail the expression of immune checkpoints and glycolysis-related enzymes in LN and LN.
The frequency of CD4 T cells decreased in LN patients (p = 0.0019). The PD1 expression of LN increased markedly compared to that of LN (p = 0.0205). Similarly, the PD1 of CD4 T cells in LN increased significantly compared to that of LN. Additionally, glycolysis-related enzyme levels in CD4 T cells from LN patients were dramatically higher than those in LN patients. PD1 and Hk2 expression in CD4 T cells was also increased in LN OSCC patients with prior surgical treatment compared to those without.
These findings suggest that lymph node metastasis and recurrence in OSCC are associated with increases in PD1 and glycolysis in CD4 T cells; this response may serve as a potential regulator of OSCC progression.
颈部淋巴结转移是口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）预后最差的因素之一。在肿瘤微环境中，激活的免疫细胞通常存在代谢异常。然而，尚不清楚 T 细胞中的异常糖酵解是否会促进 OSCC 患者发生转移性淋巴结。本研究旨在探讨转移性淋巴结中的免疫检查点的作用，并确定 CD4 T 细胞中糖酵解与免疫检查点表达之间的相关性。
采用流式细胞术和免疫荧光染色分析转移性淋巴结（LN）和阴性淋巴结（LN）中 CD4 PD1 T 细胞的差异。采用 RT-PCR 详细分析 LN 和 LN 中免疫检查点和糖酵解相关酶的表达。
LN 患者的 CD4 T 细胞频率降低（p=0.0019）。与 LN 相比，LN 的 PD1 表达明显增加（p=0.0205）。同样，LN 中 CD4 T 细胞的 PD1 也明显高于 LN。此外，LN 患者 CD4 T 细胞中糖酵解相关酶的水平明显高于 LN 患者。与未接受手术治疗的 LN OSCC 患者相比，接受过手术治疗的 LN OSCC 患者的 CD4 T 细胞中的 PD1 和 Hk2 表达也增加。
这些发现表明，OSCC 中的淋巴结转移和复发与 CD4 T 细胞中 PD1 和糖酵解的增加有关；这种反应可能是 OSCC 进展的潜在调节剂。
