Astrocytoma infiltrating lymphocytes include major T cell clonal expansions confined to the CD8 subset.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Astrocytoma infiltrating lymphocytes include major T cell clonal expansions confined to the CD8 subset.

Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/99352264
Perrin G; Schnuriger V; Quiquerez AL; Saas P; Pannetier C; de Tribolet N; Tiercy JM; Aubry JP; Dietrich PY; Walker PR; Laboratory of Tumor Immunology, Division of Oncology, University; Hospital, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland.

Abstract: Anaplastic astrocytoma and glioblastoma are frequent and malignant brain tumors that are infiltrated by T lymphocytes. Whether these cells result from non-specific inflammation following blood-brain barrier disruption or an antigen-driven specific immune response is unknown. In this study, an in-depth characterization of TCR diversity in tumor and blood RNA biopsies was performed in a series of 16 patients with malignant astrocytoma. Whilst there was no obvious restriction of the AV and BV gene segment usage, complementarity-determining region 3 size analysis and sequencing of amplified TCR transcripts revealed multiple T cell oligoclonal expansions in all astrocytomas analyzed. Unique T cell clones were present in different adjacent areas of a given tumor, but never detected in the blood. Quantification of the number of TCR clonal transcripts per microg of tumor RNA indicated that certain T cell clonal expansions may represent at least 300 cells/10(6) tumor cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the in vivo expanded clones were almost exclusively confined to the CD8(+) subset. Overall, these data suggest that spontaneous antigen-driven immune responses may be elicited against human astrocytoma despite the immunosuppressive microenvironment generated by the brain and the tumor itself. However, the ultimate failure of the immune system to control tumor growth could be the consequence of a deficient CD4 T(h) component of the response. This observation could have important consequences for the development of immunotherapies for astrocytoma patients.

Keywords: JOURNAL ARTICLE Adult Aged Aged, 80 and over Amino Acid Sequence Astrocytoma/*IMMUNOLOGY Brain Neoplasms/*IMMUNOLOGY Clone Cells CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes/IMMUNOLOGY CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/CYTOLOGY/*IMMUNOLOGY Female Genes, T-Cell Receptor Human Immunoglobulin Variable Region/GENETICS Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating/CYTOLOGY/*IMMUNOLOGY Male Middle Age Molecular Sequence Data Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta/GENETICS/METABOLISM Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction Sequence Analysis, DNA
991230
A99C1072

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