Clinical significance of HLA-G in patients with gastric cancer / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of CD14+HLA-G+ monocytes in pe-ripheral blood and the soluble form of HLA-G ( sHLA-G ) in plasma among patients with gastric cancer ( GC) . Methods Blood samples were collected from 135 patients with gastric cancer ( GC group) , 150 pa-tients with chronic gastritis ( CG group) and 80 healthy controls ( HC group) . Flow cytometry analysis and ELISA were used to detect the percentages of CD14+HLA-G+ monocytes in peripheral blood samples, the concentrations of sHLA-G in plasma samples and the levels of alpha fetoprotein (AFP), cacino-embryonic antigen ( CEA) , CA19-9 and CA125 in serum samples. Mann-Whitney U test was performed to analyze the differences between different groups. The feasibility of using CD14+HLA-G+ monocytes, sHLA-G, AFP, CEA, CA19-9 and CA125 as potential biomarkers to differentiate patients with GC from those with CG or healthy subjects was assessed by using receiver operating characteristic ( ROC ) curve analysis. Results The median percentages of CD14+HLA-G+ monocytes in subjects from GC, CG and HC groups were 18. 6% (12. 1%-26. 7%), 7. 3% (4. 2%-11. 0%) and 4. 6% (3. 6%-6. 3%), respectively. The percentages of CD14+HLA-G+monocytes in the peripheral blood of patients with GC were significantly higher than those in patients with CG and healthy subjects (P<0. 001). The concentrations of sHLA-G in plasma samples collected from patients with GC [(100. 6±61. 3) U/ml) were significantly higher than those in pa-tients with CG [(59.5±19. 9) U/ml) and healthy subjects [(45. 8±23. 3) U/ml] (P<0. 001). ROC curve analysis showed that in terms of GC diagnosis, the area under ROC curve ( AUC) , cutoff value, sensi-tivity and specificity for CD14+HLA-G+monocytes and sHLA-G in plasma were 0. 893 and 0. 720, 12% and 85 U/mL, 75. 8% and 50. 5%, 86. 7% and 95. 9% (P<0. 001), respectively, which indicated that CD14+HLA-G+ monocytes and sHLA-G were better than AFP, CEA, CA19-9 and CA125 in differentiating GC from CG and HC. Moreover, the multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the CD14+HLA-G+ monocytes, sHLA-G in plasma as well as CA19-9 and CA125 in serum were positively correlated with the risk of GC after excluding the differences caused by age and gender factors. Conclusion The levels of CD14+HLA-G+ monocytes in peripheral blood and sHLA-G in plasma increased dramatically in patients with gastric cancer, which suggested that CD14+HLA-G+monocytes and sHLA-G might be risk factors for GC and could be used as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of GC.