[Highly expressed CD147 on CD4⁺ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes promotes the progress of breast cancer]

To investigate the expression of CD147 in CD4⁺ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and explore the clinical significance of CD147 transcripts in breast cancer patients by comparing CD147 level in healthy controls' peripheral blood, breast cancer patients' peripheral blood, lymph nodes and CD4⁺ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes.

CD147 expression data were derived by Robust Multi-array Averaging method from three different microarrays, GSE14308, GSE36765 and GSE6532. ANOVA, Kaplan-Meier curve and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model were used for the statistical analysis.

The expression of CD147 in Th1, Th2 and Th17 cells was 8-12 times higher than that in Th0 cells in normal C57BL/6J mice. The expression level of CD147 in the CD4⁺ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes from breast cancer patients was significantly higher than that in the CD4⁺ lymphocytes from peripheral blood of healthy donors, peripheral blood and axillary lymph nodes of breast cancer patients. High expression of CD147 was significantly associated with an increased risk of relapse in the Kaplan-Meier curve analysis (Log-Rank, P=0.019) and multivariate analysis (hazard ratio=1.764; 95% confidence interval: 1.088-2.859).

CD147 might promote the progress of breast cancer through up-regulating CD4⁺ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and aggravating inflammatory reaction.