3. Results
3.1 An increased proportion of Treg cells in peripheral blood of patients with primary HCC
The percentage of Treg cells (CD25+, CD127+ Low) in Th cells (CD3+, CD4+) was 11.26 ± 1.31% in HCC patients and 7.32 ±1.63% in healthy control group. The proportion of Treg cells in peripheral blood of HCC patients was significantly higher than that of healthy control group (P < 0.05).
3.2 The association between the peripheral Treg cells proportion and clinical characteristics of HCC
The peripheral Treg cell proportion in HCC patients was associated with tumor stage, AFP, tumor size and tumor encapsulation. The proportion of Treg cells in peripheral blood of HCC patients at stage C was higher than that of patients at stage B. The Treg cells proportion in AFP positive (> 20 ng/mL) HCC patients was higher than that in AFP negative patients. In addition, the larger the tumor size (> 8cm), the higher the Treg cell proportion in peripheral blood. According to the imaging findings and DSA tumor staining, the Treg proportion in HCC patients without tumor encapsulation was higher than that in HCC patients with tumor encapsulation (P < 0.05) (Table 3). Analysis showed that metastasis or vascular invasion was not positively correlated with the Treg cell proportion(P>0.05).
Table 3 The association between the Treg cell proportion with clinical characteristics of HCC