Original Articles
Copyright ©The Author(s) 1999. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 15, 1999; 5(1): 12-14
Published online Feb 15, 1999. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v5.i1.12
In situ detection of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes expressing perforin and fas ligand genes in human HCC
Qi-Jun Qian, Hui-Bin Xue, Zeng-Qiang Qu, Shi-Gang Fang, Hui-Fang Cao, Meng-Chao Wu
Qi-Jun Qian, Hui-Bin Xue, Zeng-Qiang Qu, Shi-Gang Fang, Hui-Fang Cao, Meng-Chao Wu, Tumor Immunology and Gene Therapy Center, Eastern Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shanghai 200438, China
Qi-Jun Qian, male, born on 1964-09-18 in Shaoxing City, Zhe-jiang Province, graduated from the First Military Medical University in 1987, now Asso ciate Professor of tumor immunology, majoring in hepatic tumor immunology, havin g 19 papers published.
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Supported by the Key National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.39730440 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.39500082.
Correspondence to: Dr. Qi-Jun Qian, Tumor Immunology and Gene Therapy Center, Eastern Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Shanghai 200438, China
Telephone: +86-21-65564166 Ext. 75430
Received: November 9, 1998
Revised: November 29, 1998
Accepted: January 4, 1999
Published online: February 15, 1999
Abstract

AIM To investigate the expression of perforin and fas-ligand (fas-L) of tumor infiltrating lym-phocytes (TILs) in human hepatocellular carci-noma (HCC).

METHODS By in situ hybridization and immuno-histochemistry, the perforin and fas-L gene ex-pression of TILs was studied in 20 HCC cases. RESULTS Positive expression of perforin and fas-L genes was detected in 16 HCC cases. One patient had expression of perforin and fas-L genes in the majority of TILs and survived 1.5 years after tumor resection without HCC re-lapse. This seems that the presence of a large number of activated T cells might be beneficial for the antitumor immunity. In other cases, less than 10% o f TILs were able to express perforin and fas-L genes.

CONCLUSION Although there were a number of T cells in HCC, only few of them were im-munoactive and able to kill tumor cells. It seems important to promote further proliferation of these activated T cells in vitro or in vivo.

Keywords: carcinoma, hepatocellular; lymphocytes; fas ligand genes; perforin; in situ hy-bridization; liver neoplasms