Department of Cell Pathology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1, Honjo, Kumamoto Chuo-ku, Kumamoto, 860-8556, Japan.
Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan.
Med Mol Morphol. 2024 Mar;57(1):68-75. doi: 10.1007/s00795-023-00374-9. Epub 2023 Nov 22.
Serpinb9 is an inhibitor of granzyme B and is potentially involved in the immune escape of tumor cells. In the present study, bioinformatics analysis using open databases suggested that SerpinB9 is overexpressed in testicular embryonal carcinoma. Immunohistological analysis was performed on 28 cases of testicular germ cell tumors to investigate the relationship between SerpinB9 expression in testicular germ cell tumors and the tumor immune environment. SerpinB9 was significantly upregulated in the non-seminoma group and inversely correlated with the number of tumor-infiltrating CD8-positive cells. In addition, yolk sac tumors were characterized by the loss of human leukocyte antigen-class I expression. These findings suggest that SerpinB9 contributes to the immune escape of testicular germ cell tumors. Targeting therapy for SerpinB9 might therefore be useful in immunotherapy for testicular germ cell tumors resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors.
丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂 B9（SerpinB9）是颗粒酶 B 的抑制剂，可能参与肿瘤细胞的免疫逃逸。本研究利用公开数据库进行生物信息学分析，提示 SerpinB9 在睾丸胚胎性癌中过表达。免疫组织化学分析 28 例睾丸生殖细胞肿瘤，研究 SerpinB9 在睾丸生殖细胞肿瘤中的表达与肿瘤免疫微环境的关系。非精原细胞瘤组 SerpinB9 显著上调，与肿瘤浸润 CD8+阳性细胞数呈负相关。此外，卵黄囊瘤的特征是人类白细胞抗原 I 类表达缺失。这些发现提示 SerpinB9 有助于睾丸生殖细胞肿瘤的免疫逃逸。因此，针对 SerpinB9 的靶向治疗可能对免疫检查点抑制剂耐药的睾丸生殖细胞肿瘤的免疫治疗有用。
