TCR-ζ EXPRESSION AND APOPTOSIS IN PERIPHRAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS OF PATIENTS WITH HEAD AND NECK CANCER

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The decline of immunocompetence was often pointed out in patients with head and neck cancer. And the abnormality of signal transfer molecule in peripheral blood lymphocyte or tumor infiltrating lymphocyte, which was associated with T cell receptor(TCR) has been reported.We showed that the expression of TCR-ζ(T cell receptorζ), in CD4^+ T cells and CD8^+ T cerlls, was lower in patients with head and neck cancer than in control by quantitative flow cytometry. Moreover, by TUNEL assay(terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling ), which detected late phase apoptosis, the patients showed higher spontaneous apoptosis in CD3^+ T cell than normal control.On the other hand, the expression of Fas-R, which is one of the death receptors, on the surface of PBMCs(peripheral blood mononuclear cells) in patients with head and neck cancer was relatively high as compared with that in control. So the possibility of the apoptosis of PBMCs induced by Fas-Fas L complex as a mechanism of apoptosis without being connected with T cell receptor pathway was also guessed.