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European Journal of Dermatology

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The vast majority of lymphocytes infiltrating primary cutaneous melanoma express the CD27 costimulatory receptor: implications for melanoma progression Volume 21, numéro 2, March-April 2011

Auteurs
Section of Dermatology, Department of Surgical Sciences, Parma University, Via Gramsci 14, I-43100 Parma, Italy, Section of Pathology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Parma University, Parma, Italy, Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry, Parma University, Parma, Italy

Melanoma progression is favoured by prevalence, within the micro-environment of primary cutaneous melanoma, of suppressive forces, e.g. exerted by CD4 + CD25 + FOXP3 + regulatory T lymphocytes, over anti-melanoma immunity, e.g. exerted by CD8 + cytolytic T lymphocytes. The CD27 glycoprotein is crucial because it is able to identify regulatory T cells endowed with strong suppressive ability, whilst CD8 + T cells endowed with actual cytolytic ability become CD27 -. The present in situ quantitative immunohistochemical study, including a series of double labelling experiments and morphometrical cell analyses, shows that the vast majority of lymphocytes infiltrating primary cutaneous melanoma express CD27. Specifically, virtually the entire CD4 + CD25 + FOXP3 + T subset infiltrating primary cutaneous melanoma also co-expressed CD27; CD27 was, moreover, co-expressed even by the vast majority of the CD8 + T cells, and, conversely, effector/cytotoxic CD8 +CD27 - cells were very scarcely represented. The overwhelming CD27 co-expression may confer on the CD4 +CD25 +FOXP3 + T subset a consistent capacity to suppress anti-melanoma immunity, whereas the too low CD8 + CD27 - cell proportion may presumably be insufficient to confer on the CD8 + T subset a satisfactory anti-melanoma cytotoxic activity. We therefore propose that these CD27-discriminated pathways may trigger a functional imbalance within the microenvironment of primary cutaneous melanoma, thus favouring melanoma progression.