Immunoreactivity of lymphocytes from draining lymph nodes, peripheral blood and tumor infiltrates from oral cancer patients

Lymphocytes from metastatic (met) and nonmetastatic (non-met) regional lymph nodes, LNL peripheral blood (PBL) and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity and healthy donors were investigated for CD3, CD4, CD8 and HNK-1 phenotypes, Natural Killer (NK) cell Activity, Antibody Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity (ADCC) and proliferative response to mitogen (PHA). Modulation of NK cytotoxicity with recombinant Interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) was also investigated in some cases. Lymphocytes from met and non-met lymph nodes showed no variation in the percentages of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ cells, when compared with each other and with PBL of oral cancer patients. TIL showed significantly less proportion of CD3+ and CD4+ cells. The percentage of HNK-1+ cells was significantly lower in LNL and TIL when compared to PBL of oral cancer patients. The mitogen responses of met and non-met LNL were comparable to each other and better than that of PBL from the same patients, while, TIL showed significant impairment in mitogen responses. The NK cytotoxicity and ADCC of PBL from oral cancer patients were comparable to healthy donors which could be augmented by rIFN alpha. LNL and TIL showed almost negligible NK and ADCC activities and NK activity could not be modulated by rIFN alpha. The results thus demonstrate that in oral cancer patients, lymphocytes from three compartments viz. PBL, LNL and TIL showed differential effector functions. The metastatic status of LN did not affect the immunoreactivity of LNL.