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. 1990 Mar;32(2):81–87. doi: 10.1007/BF01754203

Sparse distribution of γ/δ T lymphocytes around human epithelial tumors predominantly infiltrated by primed/memory T cells

Sylvia Miescher 1, Magali Schreyer 1, Catherine Barras 1, Patrizio Capasso 1, Vladimir von Fliedner 1,✉
PMCID: PMC11038161  PMID: 2149671

Abstract

Evidence from the mouse system has suggested that T lymphocytes accumulating in non-lymphoid tissue, in particular epithelia, may preferentially express the T cell receptor (TCR) γδ. In this study, we characterize the T cell receptor αβ or γδ phenotype of lymphocytes infiltrating human tumors of epithelial origin using monoclonal antibodies (mAb) for immunohistology and flow cytometry on cells extracted by enzyme digestion. This report shows that the majority of CD3+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes are TCR αβ+ but a small percentage of TCR γδ can be clearly defined scattered throughout the tumor tissue with apparently no microanatomical selection. So far there has been little evidence for an accumulation of activated T cells in human tumor tissues as defined by mAb against molecules appearing transiently during the acute phase of activation. Now mAb are available that can identify primed or memory T cells such as mAb UCHL-1 recognizing the CD45RO antigen. Here we show that CD3+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes have a statistically significant accumulation of primed T cells, as compared to the autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes, suggesting their immune stimulation by tumor cells.

Keywords: Human Tumor, Cell Receptor, Blood Lymphocyte, Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte, Epithelial Tumor

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