Natural Killer Cell Activity and Response to Phytohaemagglutinin Compared with the Histological Diagnosis of Patients with Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder

Abstract

In vitro tests of immune reactivity in patients with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder were compared with the clinical and histological diagnosis. Response of peripheral blood lymphocytes to the mitogen phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) tended to be reduced in patients with more advanced disease, although the difference between patients with advanced disease and those with early disease or controls was not statistically significant (P greater than 0.05). Assessment of natural killer (NK) cell activity in the same patients showed no change in levels of reactivity at any stage of the disease. There was no difference between the NK cell activity of patients with TCC of the bladder and normal controls.

Analysis of natural killer activity and natural killer cell subsets in patients with bladder cancer

“…Ma et al [8] reported that NK activity was depressed in bladder cancer patients but that there was no correlation between NK activity and grade or stage of the disease. On the other hand, Britten et al [3] reported that there was no significant difference in NK activity between bladder cancer patients and normal controls. Generally, NK activity is reported to be depressed in patients with a wide variety of nnalignant diseases [17,19], consistent with our study.…”

Immunohistochemical Detection of Tissue-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Bladder Tumors

“…Evidence accumulated in recent years suggests that there are a number of different mechanisms by which the host immune system can exert inhibitory influences on tumor growth: This evidence was obtained from studies that investigated the humoral immune response mainly in PBL [3]; however, systemic immune response does not always reflect the tumor-host relationship [4], If the cancer patient has a cytotoxic resistance to the cancer, the battlefield would be at the sites of cancer invasion and metastasis.…”

“…Lymphocyte Subsets o f TIL and PBL TIL subsets were investigated via an indirect immunoperoxidase technique using tissue samples from bladder cancers (25) and from noncancerous tissues (4). In brief, fresh resected sections, fixed for 12 h in a PLP fixative [2] consisting of periodate, 4% lysine, and paraformaldehyde, were washed serially in graded phosphate buff ers containing 5-20% sucrose.…”