Regulatory T cells increase in breast cancer and in stage IV breast cancer

Abstract

Expression levels of VEGF and Her-2, levels of T-regulatory (Treg) cells, levels of CD3+ cells, and ratios of Th (CD4+ T cells)/Tr (Treg) cells were compared between stage I, II, III, and IV breast cancer patients (n = 120) prior to chemotherapy and healthy women (n = 30). Cells from peripheral blood were counted by flow cytometry, Her-2 and VEGF expression was detected by pathological examination, and Her-2 was detected by FISH. Breast cancer patients had more Treg cells and a lower ratio of Th/Tr cells than the healthy women. Stage IV breast cancer patients had more Treg cells and a lower ratio of Th/Tr cells than stage I, II, or III breast cancer patients. Patients positive for VEGF had a lower ratio of Th/Tr cells compared with patients negative for VEGF, and those positive for both VEGF and Her-2 also had a lower ratio of Th/Tr cells compared with patients not positive for both VEGF and Her-2. The decreased Th/Tr cells ratio indicates impaired immune function, suggesting that the stage IV breast cancer and the Her-2/VEGF-positive breast cancer patients have lower immune function.

Fig. 1

The percentages of CD3+, Treg, and Th cells (a) and the ratios of CD4+/CD8+ cells and Th/Tr cells (b) were compared among healthy adult women (n = 30), breast cancer patients of stage I–III (n = 65), and breast cancer patients at stage IV (n = 55). Data are expressed as means with the standard deviations indicated by the bar. For comparisons where P < 0.05, the * represents a significant difference between stage I–III and the healthy women, the † represents a significant difference between stage IV and the healthy women, and ‡ represents a significant difference between stage I–III and stage IV

Fig. 2

The immunohistochemistry results evaluated the overexpression of VEGF and Her-2. To evaluate the expression of VEGF, breast tissue sections from healthy women (a) and cancer patients (b) were immunostained with anti-VEGF antibody and visualized by DAB. The detection of Her-2 gene expression status was evaluated by FISH. The results from a normal Her-2 expressing (c) or overexpressing (d) tissue were shown. The scale bar = 50 μm in (a) and (b). The scale bar = 2 μm in (c) and (d)