Dendritic cells in melanoma - immunohistochemical study and research trends

Cutaneous dendritic cells play multiple physiological roles and are involved in various pathophysiological processes. Research studies of dendritic cells abound in the medical literature. Nevertheless, the role of dendritic cells in melanoma regression phenomenon is not completely understood. We conducted a scientometric analysis in order to highlight the current state on research regarding dendritic cells and melanoma. We also performed an immunohistochemical study, using specific markers for dendritic cells (CD1a, langerin). We evaluated the frequency and distribution of dendritic cells in areas of tumor regression compared to the areas of inflammatory infiltrate of melanoma without regression. The immunohistochemical study we performed revealed that dendritic cells are more frequent in the regressed areas, comparing with non-regressed ones. In regressed areas, dendritic cells have a predominant nodular pattern (19 cases), followed by diffuse isolate pattern (eight cases) and mixed pattern (diffuse and nodular) (three cases). In melanoma without regression, most cases presented a diffuse pattern (27 cases) of dendritic cells distribution. In conclusion, our immunohistochemical study stressed differences between frequency and distribution of dendritic cells located in the melanoma with regression and melanoma without regression. These data suggest that dendritic cells are involved in the regression phenomenon. Following the literature analysis we obtained, we observed that dendritic cells profile in melanoma with regression was poorly studied. Insights into antitumor immune response and dendritic cells may be essential for the understanding of the potential prognostic role of dendritic cells in melanoma and for the development of new promising therapeutic strategies for melanoma.