Fas／FasL的特性及其与免疫系统和肿瘤细胞的相关性

研究肿瘤的最大困惑之一就是为什么体内免疫系统几乎不能消灭肿瘤细胞,肿瘤细胞如何逃逸免疫系统的监测而生存?最新研究表明,肿瘤细胞逃逸免疫系统攻击的重要机制之一就是由于存在Fas/FasL系统。本文就Fas/FasL的特性及其与免疫系统和肿瘤细胞的相关性作一综述。 一、Fas/FasL的特性 Fas(也称为AP0或CD95)为细胞表面的     

肝癌免疫逃逸机制的研究进展

肿瘤免疫逃逸在肝癌发生发展中起着重要作用。树突状细胞和免疫细胞的不成熟或功能低下将导致机体免疫功能被抑制而促进肝癌的发生发展。多种细胞因子如IL-10、TGF-β、VEGF等会抑制机体免疫功能使肝癌生长增殖或直接促进肿瘤的发生发展。肝癌细胞分泌Fas L及其表面Fas的表达减少会诱导免疫细胞凋亡或避免T细胞等免疫细胞的杀伤作用从而逃避机体免疫作用。因此,本文将从免疫细胞、肿瘤细胞本身以及两者间的相互作用三个方面阐述肝癌免疫逃逸的分子机制。     

肝癌细胞Fas-FasL途径反击免疫细胞

为了探讨肝癌细胞反击肿瘤浸润淋巴细胞(TIL)的机制,在体外进行肝癌细胞和TIL混合培养后,检测两种细胞FasL、Fas、caspase-8基因的表达情况,以及肿瘤细胞反击时TIL凋亡比例的变化.将肝癌细胞与TIL按照不同的比例共培养后,流式细胞术检测TIL凋亡率;实时荧光定量PCR检测肝癌细胞与TIL FasL、Fas和caspase-8基因的表达情况;以及Western印迹检测FasL、caspase-8的表达情况.不同浓度的肝癌细胞与TIL共同培养48 h后,随着肝癌细胞接种浓度的增加,TIL凋亡率明显增加(P＜0.01).与正常人肝细胞相比,人肝癌细胞FasL mRNA表达含量明显增高(P＜0.01).与人肝癌细胞共同培养24 h后,TIL Fas、caspase-8基因mRNA的表达也明显升高;TIL caspase-8的表达也明显升高.结果表明,肝癌细胞可以通过Fas系统诱导TIL发生凋亡,这为肝癌的免疫逃逸和肿瘤反击机制提供了依据.     

人脑星形细胞瘤中p53，Fas／FasL的表达及其与凋亡关系的研究

目的：探讨细胞凋亡在星形细胞瘤中的作用及其与p53、Fas和Fas配体（Fas ligand,FasL）的关系。方法：对43例星形细胞瘤的标本分别进行HE染色,TUNEL及免疫组化分别标记p53,Fas和FasL。结果：高级别肿瘤和低级别肿瘤间的凋亡无显著差异（P〉0．05）。高级别星形细胞瘤的p53,Fas和FasL的表达均显著高于低级别肿瘤（P均〈0．05）。结论：突变型p53可作为评价星形细胞瘤生物学行为的参考指标。与低级别星形细胞瘤相比,高级别肿瘤中的细胞凋亡受到了抑制,且Fas与FasL的过表达对细胞凋亡可产生明显影响。     

人脑星形细胞瘤中p53，Fas/FasL 的表达及其与凋亡关系的研究

目的:探讨细胞凋亡在星形细胞瘤中的作用及其与p53、Fas和Fas配体(Fas ligand,FasL)的关系。方法:对43例星形细胞瘤的标本分别进行HE染色,TUNEL及免疫组化分别标记p53,Fas和FasL。结果:高级别肿瘤和低级别肿瘤间的凋亡无显著差异(P>0.05)。高级别星形细胞瘤的p53,Fas和FasL的表达均显著高于低级别肿瘤(P均<0.05)。结论:突变型p53可作为评价星形细胞瘤生物学行为的参考指标。与低级别星形细胞瘤相比,高级别肿瘤中的细胞凋亡受到了抑制,且Fas与FasL的过表达对细胞凋亡可产生明显影响。     

口腔鳞癌组织细胞凋亡相关蛋白Fas/FasL的表达研究

目的　研究调亡相关蛋白Fas、FasL在口腔鳞状细胞癌组织中的表达及意义。方法　应用免疫组织化学方法检测 10例正常口腔粘膜、 38例口腔鳞癌组织及肿瘤浸润淋巴细胞 (TIL)和 11例转移淋巴结中Fas、FasL的表达。结果　Fas在正常口腔粘膜中广泛表达 ;鳞癌组织表达明显下调 (P <0 .0 5 ) ;Fas表达与口腔鳞癌分化程度有关 ;淋巴结转移癌中Fas表达减弱。FasL在正常口腔粘膜不表达 ;鳞癌组织表达明显上调 (P <0 .0 5 ) ;FasL表达与口腔鳞癌分化程度无关 (P >0 .0 5 ) ;有淋巴结转移者FasL阳性表达率高于无转移者 (P <0 .0 5 )。TIL细胞Fas、FasL阳性表达率为 81.6 %和 84 .2 % .。Fas、FasL在口腔鳞癌的表达有明显相关性 (P <0 .0 5 )。结论　Fas表达与口腔粘膜上皮细胞的自然分化成熟衰老及口腔鳞癌的形成和肿瘤的恶性度有关。FasL的表达上调可能是口腔鳞癌组织免疫反攻击的体现 ,对促进肿瘤的发生发展及转移有重要作用。     

FasL-Fas:免疫豁免还是炎症?

FasL,又称死亡配体,与其受体Fas分子（Fas）结合,能诱导Fas阳性细胞的凋亡。免疫豁免区组织中组成性表达的FasL被认为是介导免疫豁免的关键分子,一些肿瘤细胞也表达FasL,被认为是用来逃脱免疫攻击的手段。然而,最近大量设想利用FasL来诱导异体移植的耐受却得出了相反的结果,FasL引起严重的炎症反应使得移植排斥更为迅速。这使得人们对于FasL在介导免疫豁免中的作用提出了异议。本就最近几年FasL的研究进展,对这些非淋巴细胞表达的FasL在机体维持免疫豁免及诱发炎症中的关系作一讨论。     

Fas/FasL系统与类风湿关节炎发病机制的研究进展

类风湿关节炎是机体对自身滑膜发生免疫反应的疾病,其主要病理特征是滑膜增生和多种炎症细胞的浸润。滑膜增生的有关机制仍不清楚,目前认为可能是滑膜细胞和炎症浸润细胞数量增加及凋亡相对减少,即细胞凋亡程度不及增殖程度所致。Fas/FasL系统是细胞凋亡的重要途径之一,通过影响滑膜细胞的Fas/FasL表达可以诱导其凋亡。本文对Fas/FasL的性质、结构、功能、Fas/FasL与RA发病机制及RA治疗的关系进行综述。     

Fas与FasL的分子生物学研究进展

Fas是细胞表面诱导凋亡的分子,是I型膜蛋白,属TNF受体家族成员。而Fas配体（FasL)是Ⅱ型膜蛋白,属TNF家族成员。Fas与FasL结合,可向细胞传递死亡信号,引发细胞凋亡。Fas在人体中表达及功能正常与否,对人体免疫调控起重要作用。     

在HBV感染的肝癌组织中Fas/FasL表达的作用

目的探讨Fas／FasL（Fas配体）在原发性肝细胞肝癌（HCC）组织中的表达及其与乙肝病毒（HBV）感染的关系。方法用免疫组化S-P法检测21例肝癌组织及其10例癌旁组织Fas／FasL的表达。结果在肝癌和癌旁组织中Fas表达的阳性率分别为52．38％和80．00％（P〈0．05）,FasL分别为66．67％和40．00％（P〈0．05）。在HBsAg阳性和阴性组Fas表达的阳性率分别为50．00％和66．67％（P〉0．05）;FasL分别为61．11％和100％（P〈0．05）。肝癌组织中Fas、FasL表达与性别、年龄、肿瘤大小无关,与癌栓转移呈负相关,FasL与分化程度有关。结论肝癌细胞能下调Fas及上调FasL的表达而使凋亡受阻,HBV感染能抑制肝癌组织FasL的表达,可能是HBV在HCC的发牛及发展讨稃中的致痛机制。     

Cutting edge: a novel role for Fas ligand in facilitating antigen acquisition by dendritic cells

Fas ligand (FasL)-expressing tumor cells are found to effectively mediate rejection of the coinoculated FasL negative parental cells while having no effect on the growth of histologically distinct tumor cells. These observations indicate that FasL induces a specific immune response against Ag derived from FasL-bearing tumors and suggest a possible role for FasL in tumor Ag presentation. Indeed, tumor cells expressing FasL can efficiently interact with dendritic cells (DCs) and this interaction requires the expression of membrane-bound FasL on tumors and Fas on DCs. Moreover, DCs cocultured with FasL-expressing tumors are able to elicit a tumor-specific immune response in vivo, suggesting that DCs acquire tumor Ag during the Fas/FasL-mediated DC-tumor contact. These results identify a novel role for FasL in augmenting tumor-DC interactions and subsequent tumor Ag acquisition by DCs, and suggest that FasL-expressing tumor cells could be used to generate tumor-specific DC vaccines.     

The Fas/Fas ligand system and cancer: immune privilege and apoptosis

The Fas/FasL system has been suggested to play an important role in the establishment of immune privilege status for tumors by inducing Fas-mediated apoptosis in tumor-specific lymphocytes. However, the role of cell-surface expressed FasL in tumor cell protection has recently become controversial. Our laboratory has focused on the study of the role of the Fas/FasL system in the normal tissue remodeling of the female reproductive tract and in immune-privileged organs. Our studies have demonstrated a connection between sex hormones and the regulation of the Fas/FasL pathway in immune and reproductive cells. More recently, we have investigated the resistance of tumor cells to Fas-mediated apoptosis. We have also characterized a new form of FasL, different from the classical membranal form, which is secreted by ovarian cancer cells. In this review we describe the main techniques used in these studies.     

Fas Ligand Promotes Tumor Immune Evasion of Colon Cancer In Vivo

The study of the role of Fas ligand (FasL/CD95L) in tumor immune evasion has been complicated by the discovery that FasL may trigger cytokine secretion and induce inflammation. Antisense suppression of FasL expression by colon tumor cells was used to investigate if a reduction in endogenously expressed FasL in tumors resulted in reduced tumor development and improved anti-tumor immune challenge in vivo. Downregulation of FasL expression had no effect on tumor growth in vitro but significantly reduced tumor development in syngeneic immune-competent mice in vivo. Tumor size was also significantly decreased. Reduced FasL expression by tumor cells was associated with increased lymphocyte infiltration. Moreover, constitutively expressed FasL was not pro-inflammatory. This study indicates that upregulation of FasL expression by colon tumor cells results in an improved anti-tumor immune challenge in vivo, providing functional evidence in favor of the ‘Fas counterattack’ as a mechanism of tumor immune evasion.     

Activated T cell exosomes promote tumor invasion via Fas signaling pathway

Activated T cells release bioactive Fas ligand (FasL) in exosomes, which subsequently induce self-apoptosis of T cells. However, their potential effects on cell apoptosis in tumors are still unknown. In this study, we purified exosomes expressing FasL from activated CD8(+) T cell from OT-I mice and found that activated T cell exosomes had little effect on apoptosis and proliferation of tumor cells but promoted the invasion of B16 and 3LL cancer cells in vitro via the Fas/FasL pathway. Activated T cell exosomes increased the amount of cellular FLICE inhibitory proteins and subsequently activated the ERK and NF-κB pathways, which subsequently increased MMP9 expression in the B16 murine melanoma cells. In a tumor-invasive model in vivo, we observed that the activated T cell exosomes promoted the migration of B16 tumor cells to lung. Interestingly, pretreatment with FasL mAb significantly reduced the migration of B16 tumor cells to lung. Furthermore, CD8 and FasL double-positive exosomes from tumor mice, but not normal mice, also increased the expression of MMP9 and promoted the invasive ability of B16 murine melanoma and 3LL lung cancer cells. In conclusion, our results indicate that activated T cell exosomes promote melanoma and lung cancer cell metastasis by increasing the expression of MMP9 via Fas signaling, revealing a new mechanism of tumor immune escape.     

Membrane Fas ligand activates innate immunity and terminates ocular immune privilege

It has been proposed that the constitutive expression of Fas ligand (FasL) in the eye maintains immune privilege, in part through inducing apoptosis of infiltrating Fas(+) T cells. However, the role of FasL in immune privilege remains controversial due to studies that indicate FasL is both pro- and anti-inflammatory. To elucidate the mechanism(s) by which FasL regulates immune privilege, we used an ocular tumor model and examined the individual roles of the membrane-bound and soluble form of FasL in regulating ocular inflammation. Following injection into the privileged eye, tumors expressing only soluble FasL failed to trigger inflammation and grew progressively. By contrast, tumors expressing only membrane FasL 1) initiated vigorous neutrophil-mediated inflammation, 2) terminated immune privilege, and 3) were completely rejected. Moreover, the rejection coincided with activation of both innate and adaptive immunity. Interestingly, a higher threshold level of membrane FasL on tumors is required to initiate inflammation within the immune privileged eye, as compared with nonprivileged sites. The higher threshold is due to the suppressive microenvironment found within aqueous humor that blocks membrane FasL activation of neutrophils. However, aqueous humor is unable to completely block the proinflammatory effects of tumor cells that express high levels of membrane FasL. In conclusion, our data indicate that the function of FasL on intraocular tumors is determined by the microenvironment in conjunction with the form and level of FasL expressed.     

Fas-negative osteosarcoma tumor cells are selected during metastasis to the lungs: the role of the Fas pathway in the metastatic process of osteosarcoma

Low expression of Fas by different tumors including osteosarcoma, correlates with poor prognosis. We found that osteosarcoma lung metastases from patients expressed negligible amounts of Fas, but primary tumors often expressed high Fas levels. The reason for this discrepancy is unknown. We hypothesized that because FasL is constitutively expressed in the lungs, Fas-positive (Fas(+)) tumor cells entering the lungs would bind with FasL and die from Fas-induced apoptosis, resulting in the "selection" of Fas-negative (Fas(-)) cells, which would eventually form metastases. To test this hypothesis, we injected K7 osteosarcoma cells, which express functional Fas in vitro, into mice and confirmed that its bone tumors were Fas(+), but lung metastases were Fas(-). Next, to inhibit Fas signaling without affecting Fas expression, we transfected these cells with a FADD-dominant negative (FDN) plasmid and developed K7/FDN cells. Metastases formed by K7/FDN cells contained Fas(+) tumor cells. Moreover, K7/FDN cells were retained in the lungs longer and formed more lung metastases than K7 cells. In addition, the incidence of lung metastases in FasL-deficient mice injected with K7 cells was higher than that in wild-type mice. Metastases from FasL-deficient mice but not from wild-type mice contained Fas(+) tumor cells. Based on that, we conclude that Fas(-) osteosarcoma cells are selected during lung metastases formation and that inhibition of Fas signaling in tumors or lack of FasL in the host environment allows the proliferation of Fas(+) osteosarcoma cells in the lungs and promotes metastases growth. Therefore, Fas may be considered as a new therapeutic target for osteosarcoma treatment.     

T cell–tumor cell: a fatal interaction?

Fas (Apo-1/CD95) is a cell-surface protein that is responsible for initiating a cascade of proteases (caspases) culminating in apoptotic cell death in a variety of cell types. The function of the Fas/FasL system in the dampening of immune responses to infectious agents through the autocrine deletion of activated T cells has been well documented. More recently, it has been proposed that tumor cells express FasL, presumably to avoid immune detection. In this review, we focus on the role of the interaction of Fas and FasL in the modulation of antitumor responses. We critically examine the evidence that FasL is expressed by tumor cells and explore alternative explanations for the observed phenomena in vitro and in vivo. By reviewing data that we have generated in our laboratory as well as reports from the literature, we will argue that the Fas/FasL system is a generalized mechanism used in an autocrine fashion to regulate cell survival and expansion in response to environmental and cellular cues. We propose that FasL expression by tumor cells, when present, is indicative of a perturbed balance in the control of proliferation while “immune privilege” is established by “suicide” of activated antitumor T cells, a form of activation-induced cell death. Received: 5 May 1998 / Accepted: 20 May 1998     

Topotecan enhances immune clearance of gliomas

Despite aggressive surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is refractory to therapy, recurs quickly, and results in a median survival time of only 14 months. The modulation of the apoptotic receptor Fas with cytotoxic agents could potentiate the response to therapy. However, Fas ligand (FasL) is not expressed in the brain and therefore this Fas-inducing cell death mechanism cannot be utilized. Vaccination of patients with gliomas has shown promising responses. In animal studies, brain tumors of vaccinated mice were infiltrated with activated T cells. Since activated immune cells express FasL, we hypothesized that combination of immunotherapy with chemotherapy can activate Fas signaling, which could be responsible for a synergistic or additive effect of the combination. When we treated the human glioma cell line U-87 and GBM tumor cells isolated from patients with TPT, Fas was up regulated. Subsequent administration of soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) to treated cells significantly increased their cell death indicating that these Fas receptors were functional. Similar effect was observed when CD3⁺ T cells were used as a source of the FasL, indicating that the up regulated Fas expression on glioma cells increases their susceptibility to cytotoxic T cell killing. This additive effect was not observed when glioma cells were pre-treated with temozolomide, which was unable to increase Fas expression in tumor. Inhibition of FasL activity with the antagonistic antibody Nok-1 mitigated these effects confirming that these responses were specifically mediated by the Fas-FasL interaction. Furthermore, the CD3⁺ T cells co-cultured with topotecan treated U-87 and autologous GBM tumor cells showed a significant increase in expression in IFN-γ, a key cytokine produced by activated T cells, and accordingly enhanced tumor cytotoxicity. Based on our data we conclude that drugs, such as topotecan, which cause up regulation of Fas on glioma cells can be potentially exploited with immunotherapy to enhance immune clearance of tumors via Fas signaling. Jun Wei and Guillermo DeAngulo are Co-lead authors.     

The human melanoma cell line MelJuSo secretes bioactive FasL and APO2L/TRAIL on the surface of microvesicles. Possible contribution to tumor counterattack

Tumor cells have developed multiple mechanisms to evade control by the immune system. Tumoral cells expressing Fas ligand (FasL) have been proposed to "counterattack" against activated antitumoral effector immune cells, although some authors have indicated that FasL is not expressed on the surface of the same tumors, such in the case of melanoma cells. However, other factors could be implicated, such as the balance of soluble versus membrane-bound forms or the secretion of death ligands on the surface of microvesicles, as described previously by our group in human T cells. In the present study, we analyzed the expression and secretion of FasL and APO2 ligand (APO2L)/TRAIL in the human melanoma cell line MelJuSo. We have observed the expression of preformed FasL and APO2L/TRAIL in these cells, their secretion associated with microvesicles upon melanoma activation with PHA or with alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH), and the toxicity of these microvesicles against normal human T cell blasts. We have also observed that the mechanism of secretion of FasL and APO2L/TRAIL from melanoma cells is depending both on microtubules and actin filaments. From these data, it can be concluded that the MelJuSo melanoma cell line has the possibility to "counterattack" against activated immune effector cells. However, the in vivo outcome seems more complex since it has been also described that FasL expressed in tumors has a proinflammatory effect.