Effects of Tumorigenesis on Thymus Development and T Cell Production in Mice

LIU Lin, TANG Jing, XING Bing, LI Xin, CHEN Ying, ZHOU Zu-ping, PU Shi-ming

Life Science Research ›› 2020, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (6) : 459-465.

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PDF(2720 KB)
Life Science Research ›› 2020, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (6) : 459-465.

Effects of Tumorigenesis on Thymus Development and T Cell Production in Mice

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Abstract

Abstract: Thymus is a central immune organ of the body and plays an important role in the immune system. In order to explore the effect of lung cancer on the development of thymus and clarify the changes of im-mune function under tumor state, mouse Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) line was used to induce a mouse lung cancer model. HE staining was used to analyze the morphology of the mouse thymus. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the abundance of T cell subsets in the thymus and peripheral blood, the content of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in peripheral blood, and detect their effects on T cell proliferation after MDSCs were flow-sorted. The results showed that, under the tumor state, the thymus index of mice de-creased, the thymus significantly atrophied, and the ratio of thymic cortex to medulla decreased. The abso-lute cell number of each T cell subset (including CD4-CD8- cells, CD4+CD8+ cells, CD4-CD8+ cells, CD4+CD8- cells) in the thymus decreased significantly, and the amount of immature CD4+CD8+ cells also decreased significantly. Although the amounts of both CD4-CD8+ and CD4+CD8- cells increased in the thymus, they showed the opposite trend in peripheral blood. In addition, the abundance of MDSCs in peripheral blood in-creased significantly, and tumor-derived MDSCs showed stronger immunosuppressive effects than normal-derived MDSCs. These results suggests that the thymus atrophy in mice during tumorigenesis and the signifi-cant decrease of T cells may be due to the accumulation of a large number of MDSCs and the inhibition of T cell proliferation and activation by tumor-derived MDSCs, which had stronger immunosuppressive effects.

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LIU Lin, TANG Jing, XING Bing, et al. Effects of Tumorigenesis on Thymus Development and T Cell Production in Mice[J]. Life Science Research, 2020, 24(6): 459-465
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