The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of iNKT (human invariant natural killer T) cells with the key marker of ovarian cancer (OC) - CA125 (cancer antigen125) in serum. The study reports the assessment of iNKT cells in peripheral blood and tissue of benign and borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs) and in the advanced-stage ovarian cancer. The study groups were as follows: 25 women with benign ovarian tumors, 11 women with BOTs, and 24 women with primary advanced-stage ovarian cancers. The control group consisted of 20 patients without the ovarian pathology. The rates of iNKT lymphocytes in the peripheral blood and tissue specimens were evaluated by a flow cytometry. Significant differences in the percentage of iNKT+/CD3+ of CD3+ lymphocytes, iNKT+/CD3+/CD161+ among CD3+ and iNKT+/CD3+/CD161+ among CD3+/iNKT+ between the control group and patients with ovarian tumors in the peripheral blood and tumor tissue were identified. Significant correlations were noticed between the proportion of lymphocytes iNKT+/CD3+/CD161+ among CD3+/iNKT cells in blood and in cancer tissue of both benign and malignant tumors. In the OC group, neither the ratio of iNKT cells in the blood (P = 0.07), nor the intra-tumor NKT-cell infiltration (P = 0.5) were independent prognostic factors for the follow-up. An increased rate of iNKT cells was detected in benign ovarian tumors compared to OCs. In patients with ovarian cancer, a higher rate of iNKT cells in tumor tissue was present related to that noted in the patient’s blood. In addition, a correlation was discovered between the CA125 serum marker and NKT cells from the ovarian cancer tissue. This article has for the first time demonstrated a negative relationship between serum levels and NKT lymphocyte count from ovarian tissue. The inflammatory process in ovarian cancer tissue and the potential infiltration of endothelial immune cells, may result in a reduced number of NKT cells in the tumor microenvironment and increased circulation of the CA125 marker. Presented findings underscore new aspects of the iNKT cells involvement in the ovarian cancer development.

本研究的目的是研究 iNKT（人类不变性自然杀伤 T）细胞与血清中卵巢癌（OC）的关键标志物 CA125（癌抗原 125）的关联。该研究报告了对良性和交界性卵巢肿瘤 (BOT) 以及晚期卵巢癌的外周血和组织中 iNKT 细胞的评估。研究组如下：25 名患有良性卵巢肿瘤的女性、11 名患有 BOT 的女性和 24 名患有原发性晚期卵巢癌的女性。对照组由 20 名无卵巢病变的患者组成。通过流式细胞术评估外周血和组织标本中 iNKT 淋巴细胞的比率。CD3+淋巴细胞的iNKT+/CD3+百分比有显着差异，鉴定对照组与卵巢肿瘤患者外周血和肿瘤组织中CD3+中的iNKT+/CD3+/CD161+和CD3+/iNKT+中的iNKT+/CD3+/CD161+。血液中的CD3+/iNKT细胞和良恶性肿瘤的癌组织中淋巴细胞iNKT+/CD3+/CD161+的比例均存在显着相关性。在 OC 组中，血液中 iNKT 细胞的比例（P = 0.07），也没有肿瘤内 NKT 细胞浸润（P= 0.5) 是随访的独立预后因素。与 OC 相比，在良性卵巢肿瘤中检测到 iNKT 细胞的比例增加。在卵巢癌患者中，肿瘤组织中 iNKT 细胞的比例较高，与患者血液中的 iNKT 细胞比例有关。此外，还发现 CA125 血清标志物与卵巢癌组织中的 NKT 细胞之间存在相关性。这篇文章首次证明了血清水平与卵巢组织 NKT 淋巴细胞计数之间的负相关。卵巢癌组织中的炎症过程和内皮免疫细胞的潜在浸润，可能导致肿瘤微环境中 NKT 细胞数量减少和 CA125 标志物循环增加。