EXPRESSIONS OF T LYMPHOCYTE SUBSETS IN THE PERIPHERAL BLOOD OF PATIENTS WITH PRECANCEROUS LESIONS AND GASTRIC CANCER

YUTAO MA¹, YANQING YANG¹, HUI YU², WENNA SHI³, LIANQUAN ZHOU³, HONGBIN WANG³

¹Department of Gastroenterology, Dezhou City People’s Hospital, No. 1751, Xin Hu Street, Dezhou, 253014, China - ²Department Medicine and Nursing Institute,Dezhou Unniversity, No. 566,Da Xue West Road, Dezhou，253023, PR China - ³Department of Gastroenterology, Dezhou City People’s Hospital, No. 1751, Xin Hu Street, Dezhou，253014, China

Purpose: To investigate the expressions of T lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood of patients with precancerous lesions and gastric cancer.

Methods: A total of 109 patients were recruited over a 1-year period for this study. They were divided into three groups: super- ficial gastritis (35 patients), pre-cancerous lesions (32 patients), and gastric cancer (42 patients). The patients consisted of 60 males and 49 females aged between 38 and 80 years (mean age = 54.33 ± 6.74 years). Serum samples obtained from the patients were used for the determination of the levels of expressions of T lymphocyte subsets using a flow cytometer.

Results: The expressions of CD3+ and CD4+ T lymphocytes in the gastric cancer group were significantly lower than corre- sponding expressions in superficial gastritis and precancerous lesions groups (p < 0.05). However, the expressions of CD8+ and CD4+CD25+ T lymphocytes were significantly higher in the gastric cancer group than in the superficial gastritis group and the pre- cancerous lesions group (p < 0.05). The expressions of CD3+ and CD4+ T lymphocytes were significantly decreased with increase in TNM stage and lymph node metastasis (p < 0.05). However, the expressions of CD8+ and CD4+CD25+ T lymphocytes increased significantly with increase in TNM stage, and in the absence of lymph node metastasis (p < 0.05). There were no significant differen- ces in the expressions of T lymphocyte subsets between the different histological classifications (p ˃ 0.05).

Conclusion: These results indicate that the expressions of CD3+ and CD4+ T lymphocytes are decreased, while those of CD8+ and CD4+CD25+ T lymphocytes are increased in patients with gastric cancer. The levels of expressions of these lymphocytes in patients with gastric cancer are determined by the TNM stage of the disease.