T-CELL RECEPTOR GENE-EXPRESSION IN TUMOR-INFILTRATING LYMPHOCYTES AND PERIPHERAL-BLOOD LYMPHOCYTES OF PATIENTS WITH NASOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA

The T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire expression of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from 19 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) biopsies was compared with those of lymphocytes from 18 control nasopharyngeal biopsies. mRNA was extracted from these lymphocytes and the cDNA transcribed. A panel of 18 V alpha- and 21 V beta-specific primers was used to detect the TCR gene use from cDNA. The use of Ver and VB genes was restricted in TILs compared with lymphocytes from biopsies. The frequencies of V alpha 2, V alpha 3, V alpha 9, V alpha 10, V alpha 11, V alpha 13, V alpha 14, V alpha 15, V beta 11, V beta 14, V beta 15 and V beta 20 were decreased and the frequencies of V alpha 10 [P-c = 0.04; relative risk (RR) = 0.05], V alpha 11 (P-c = 0.02; RR = 0.07), V alpha 13 (P-c = 0.002; RR = 0), V alpha 14 (P-c = 0.04; RR = 0.05), V beta 14 (P-c = 0.001; RR = 0.03) and V beta 20 (P-c = 0.001; RR = 0.03) remained significantly reduced after correction for the number of families typed. The frequency of V alpha 17 was higher in NPC biopsies than in NPC PBLs (P = 0.05), and the frequency of V beta 15 was lower in NPC biopsies than in NPC PBLs (P = 0.02). The frequencies of V alpha 17 and V alpha 18 in HLA-B46(+) patients were significantly lower (P = 0.009; P = 0.044) than in B46(+) controls. The results suggest that the restriction of TCR gene use in NPC patients may be important in NPC pathogenesis.