Immunosuppressive Cytokine Interleukin-10 mRNA Expression Correlates with Tumour Progression in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

• Published in: The Asian journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery 2005-03, Vol.17 (1), p.11-19
• Main Authors: Suzuki, Kenji, Kubota, Eiro, Shimizu, Satoshi, Ozawa, Shigeyuki, Imamura, Hideo, Goto, Masaaki, Katsuki, Takeshi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carcinoma; Interleukin-10; Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; squamous cell
• ISSN: 0915-6992; 2212-1897
• DOI: 10.1016/S0915-6992(05)80003-2

Objective: To examine the correlation between immunosuppressive cytokine interleukin-10 mRNA expression and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Patients and Methods: Expression of interleukin-10 mRNA in tissues taken from 34 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma was examined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical analysis. Results: The cDNA encoding for T-lymphocyte receptor complex, CD3-δ, was amplified in all samples, indicating the presence of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes. Interleukin-10 mRNA was detected in 21 of 34 samples (61.8%). Densitometric analysis of the cDNA bands demonstrated that the ratio of CD3-δ to control β-actin was significantly lower in patients with advanced-stage carcinoma compared with those with earlystage disease (p = 0.047). However, the ratio of interleukin-10 to CD3-δ was significantly higher in the advanced stages than in the early stages (p = 0.012). Conclusions: These results suggest that tumour infiltrating lymphocytes decrease with progression of the tumour, whereas interleukin-10 expression remains constant around the tumour. These data also suggest that interleukin-10 may be produced not only by T cells but also by tumour cells.