Objective To study the effect of splenectomy on the anti-tumor immunity in rats with induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods At the second and fourth month of the induced HCC, the NK cell activity, TNF-α level and total lymphcyte in blood were measured in the group of splenectomy and the control group. Results There were no different in the total lymphcyte and TNF-α in the blood in two groups, but there were significant difference in the NK cell activity between the group of splenectomy and the control group (Ｐ＜0.05). Conclusion There are some change in the anti-tumor immunity after splenectomy in rats, in which NK cell activity is at low level continuously. TNF-α isn′t affected after the second month after splenectomy.
ObjectiveTo analyze the difference of expression of B7 superfamily member 1 (B7S1) in gastric cancer and adjacent cancer tissues, and to explore the relationship between B7S1 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics and the prognosis of gastric cancer patients.MethodsReverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry were performed to investigate the expression of B7S1 in 78 cases of gastric cancer tissues and adjacent tissues. The correlation of B7S1 expressions with the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of the patients was analyzed.ResultsThe results showed that cancer tissues relative expression of B7S1 mRNA was higher than that of adjacent tissues, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The results showed that positive rate of B7S1 protein expression in gastric cancer tissues was significantly higher than that of adjacent tissues, 74.36% and 11.54%, the difference was statistically significant (P=0.001). Chi-square analysis showed that the expression of B7S1 protein was associated with tumor diameter (P=0.006), pathological-stage (P=0.002), T-stage (P=0.011), and lymph node metastasis (P=0.001). There were no relationship with gender, age, tumor site, and M-stage (P>0.05). B7S1 protein expression was correlated with the overall survival rate for gastric cancer patients. Both univariate and Cox multivariate survival analysis suggested that B7S1 positive expression was a risk factor for poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.ConclusionsThe relative expression level of B7S1 mRNA and the positive rate of protein expression in gastric cancer tissues are higher than those in adjacent tissues. The positive expression of B7S1 is correlated with the poor clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis. We speculate that B7S1 may be involved in the malignant progression of gastric cancer.