Ovarian Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ovarian Cancer, including details on symptoms, causes, treatment, information.

Human ovarian carcinoma cells generate CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells from peripheral CD4(+)CD25(-) T cells through secreting TGF-beta.

Li X, Ye F, Chen H, Lu W, Wan X, Xie X

Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310006, China.

Increased CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells predicted poor prognosis in ovarian carcinoma patients. This study aimed to define whether soluble substances secreted by ovarian carcinoma could up-regulate the proportion of CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells. Similar to TGF-beta, the low MWF (<50kDa) of supernatant derived from SKOV3 could convert part of freshly isolated CD4(+)CD25(-) T cells into CD25(+) population with similar characters as natural CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells. To deplete TGF-beta in the low MWF by neutralizing anti-TGF-beta would eliminate this transformation phenomenon. These results indicate that TGF-beta secreted by ovarian carcinoma cells owns vital function in the process of converting peripheral CD4(+)CD25(-) T cells into CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells, which may provide one immunotherapeutic target for ovarian cancer.

Published 11 June 2007 in Cancer Lett, 253(1): 144-53.
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