European Journal of Dermatology
MENUThe vast majority of lymphocytes infiltrating primary cutaneous melanoma express the CD27 costimulatory receptor: implications for melanoma progression Volume 21, numéro 2, March-April 2011
Illustrations
- Mots-clés : anti-melanoma immunity, CD27, FOXP3, melanoma progression, regulatory T cells, tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes
- DOI : 10.1684/ejd.2010.1240
- Page(s) : 178-83
- Année de parution : 2011
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.