Clinical significance of interleukin-17 producing cell infiltration with TGF-β1 expression in glioma

Objective To investigate correlation between the amount of interleukin-17 (IL-17) producing cells and the expression of transforming growth factor (31 (TGF-β1) in glioma,and evaluate the clinical values of IL-17 and TGF-pl in predicting the prognosis of glioma. Methods The presence of IL-17 and TGF-pl was measured by immunohistochemistry in 135 human glioma (WHO Ⅰ 18,WHO Ⅱ 45,WHO Ⅲ 53,WHO Ⅳ 19) tissues and 15 normal brain tissues. Results There was no IL-17 positive staining in normal brain tissues. Of 135 glioma specimens showed low TGF-pl expression and 77 (57. 03% ) showed high TGF-pl expression. No TGF-β1 expression was detected in normal brain tissue. Furthermore,TGF-β1 expression was positively correlated with the amount of IL-17 producing cells in glioma tissues ( r=0.285, P<0.01). Compared with the low grade,the levels of IL-17 and TGF-pl positive cells were obviously increased in high grade. The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that there were significant differences in overall survival (OS) between the IL-17 and TGF-pl high-expression and lowexpression group (P＜0.01, P＜0.05). The 3-year OS rates of IL-17 of high expression and low expression were 33.75% and 76. 36%. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis indicated that age,KPS score, IL-17 were independent prognostic factor for OS (P＜0.01). Conclusion Intratumoral IL-17-producing cell density and the expression of TGF-β1 was associated with the malignancy of human glioma.