Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jun 15, 2022; 14(6): 1124-1140
Published online Jun 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i6.1124
Glutamine deprivation impairs function of infiltrating CD8+ T cells in hepatocellular carcinoma by inducing mitochondrial damage and apoptosis
Wei Wang, Meng-Nan Guo, Ning Li, De-Quan Pang, Jing-Hua Wu
Wei Wang, Meng-Nan Guo, Jing-Hua Wu, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tangshan Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063000, Hebei Province, China
Ning Li, Department of Laboratory Medicine, North China University of Science and Technology Affiliated Hospital, Tangshan 063000, Hebei Province, China
De-Quan Pang, Department of Oncology, North China University of Science and Technology Affiliated Hospital, Tangshan 063000, Hebei Province, China
Author contributions: Wang W participated in the writing and editing of the manuscript; Guo MN and Li N participated in the data analysis; Pang DQ participated in the clinical specimen collection; Wu JH provided the experimental idea; all the authors approved for the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by High-End Talent Funding Project in Hebei Province, No. A202003005; Hebei Provincial Health Commission Office, No. G2019074; and Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, No. H2019209355.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of North China University of Science and Technology (No. 2018109).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jing-Hua Wu, MD, PhD, Chief Technician, Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tangshan Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, North China University of Science and Technology, No. 1 Hetai Road, Lunan District, Tangshan 063000, Hebei Province, China. tswujinghua@163.com
Received: December 18, 2021
Peer-review started: December 18, 2021
First decision: April 17, 2022
Revised: April 22, 2022
Accepted: May 21, 2022
Article in press: May 21, 2022
Published online: June 15, 2022
Processing time: 173 Days and 19.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study aimed to investigate whether and how glutamine metabolism affects the function of infiltrating CD8+ T cells in hepatocellular carcinoma. Experimental validation was performed by using liver cancer tissues and cell lines. We discovered that glutamine deprivation impaired the function of infiltrating CD8+ T cells in hepatocellular carcinoma through the mitochondrial damage and apoptotic pathways.