Abstract:
Objective:To investigate the expression changes of IFN-γ,TGF-β1 and indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) in tumor microenvironment of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) patients at different clinical stages, as well as the correlation between IDO expression and the expressions of IFN-γ,TGF-β1. Methods: 107 NSCLC tissue samples (experiment group) were obtained from patients who underwent surgical therapy or bronchoscopy biopsy at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of The 1st Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University From January 2013 to June 2015, and 19 normal lung tissues (control group) were obtained from lung injury patients. The samples of experiment group were divided into four groups according to the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) system. Group 1: patients with stage Ⅰ (28 patients), group 2: patients with stage Ⅱ (26 patients), group 3: patients with stage Ⅲ (28 patients) and group 4: patients with stage Ⅳ (25 patients). The protein concentrations of IFN-γ, TGF-β1 and IDO were detected by ELISA and the IDO expression in tissues was assessed by immunohistochemistry. At same time, the correlations between IDO expression and IFN-γ, TGF-β1 expression in cancer tissues were evaluated. Results: Compared with control group, the IFN-γ expression in tissues of group 1 was significantly elevated(P<005), while its expressions in group 3 and group 4 were significantly decreased(P<0.05). Moreover, the IFN-γ expression in tissues of group 4 was significantly less than that of group 3(P<0.05). Similar to TGF-β1, the IDO expression in group1 was not significantly different with control group (P>0.05); but the TGF-β1 and IDO expressions in group 2, 3 and 4 were higher than those of normal tissues(P<0.05). Furthermore, The TGF-β1 and IDO expressions increased as the tumor stage went higher. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the IDO expressions in control group and group1 were directly correlate with IFN-γ(r=0.969, P<0.01, r=0.853, P<0.01), but not correlate with TGF-β1. However, in group 2, 3 and 4, the IDO expressions were directly correlate with TGF-β1 (r=0.678, P<0.01, r=0810, P<0.01, r=0.630, P=0.01), but not correlate with IFN-γ. Conclusion: Expression of IFN-γ in immune microenviroment of NSCLC patients increased at early stage, then with the progress of the disease, the immune function of patients was weakened and the expression of IFN-γ was reduced while the expressions of IDO and TGF-β1 were increased, indicating that IDO expression might be relate to IFN-γ at early stage of NSCLC, and relate to TGF-β1 at late stage.