Tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a particularly important role in the progression, invasion and metastasis of cervical carcinoma (CC). Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are significant components of the tumor microenvironment in CC. However, the results of studies on the correlation between TAMs and progression in CC are still controversial. This research aimed to investigate the relationship between TAMs infiltration and progression in CC. A total of 100 patients with CC were included in the study. The correlation between TAMs and clinicopathologic features was studied. Besides, a systematic literature search was conducted from legitimate electronic databases to specifically evaluate the role of TAMs in TME of cervical carcinoma. In the meta-analysis, high stromal CD68⁺ TAMs density was relevant to lymph node metastasis (WMD = 11.89, 95% CI 5.30 to 18.47). At the same time, CD163⁺ M2 TAM density was associated with lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.42, 95% CI 1.09 to 5.37; WMD = 39.37, 95% CI 28.25 to 50.49) and FIGO stage (WMD = -33.60, 95% CI -45.04 to -22.16). This was further confirmed in the experimental study of 100 tissues of cervical cancer. It supported a critical role of TAMs as a prospective predictor of cervical cancer. In conclusion, CD68⁺ TAM and CD163⁺ M2 TAM infiltration in CC were associated with tumor progression. And CD163⁺ M2 TAM infiltration was associated with more advanced FIGO stage and lymph node metastasis in CC.

Background. Macrophages are important immune cells involved in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection. To further investigate the degree of disease development in patients with spinal tuberculosis (TB), we conducted research on macrophage polarization. Methods. Thirty-six patients with spinal TB and twenty-five healthy controls were enrolled in this study. The specific morphology of tuberculous granuloma in spinal tissue was observed by hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining. The presence and distribution of bacilli were observed by Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) staining. Macrophage-specific molecule CD68 was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). M1 macrophages play a proinflammatory role, including the specific molecule nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and the related cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). M2 macrophages exert anti-inflammatory effects, including the specific molecule CD163 and related cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10). The above markers were all detected by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and IHC. Results. Typical tuberculous granuloma was observed in the HE staining of patients with spinal TB. ZN staining showed positive expression of Ag85B around the caseous necrosis tissue and Langerhans multinucleated giant cells. At the same time, IHC results indicated that CD68, iNOS, CD163, IL-10, TNF-α, and IFN-γ were expressed around the tuberculous granuloma, and their levels were obviously higher in close tissue than in the distant tissue. RT-PCR and ELISA results indicated that IL-10, TNF-α, and IFN-γ levels of TB patients were also higher than those of the healthy controls. Conclusion. The report here highlights that two types of macrophage polarization (M1 and M2) are present in the tissues and peripheral blood of patients with spinal TB. Macrophages also play proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory roles. Macrophage polarization is involved in spinal TB infection.

Aims: Kupffer cells (KCs) are the liver-resident macrophages and play a leading role in the regulation of liver homeostasis in physiological conditions and in pathology. The study aims to investigate the anti-echinococcosis effect of KCs and the effects of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation in the progression of liver fibrosis in hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (hepatic AE). Methods: Hematoxylin—eosin (H&E) and Masson staining were used to assess the pathological inflammatory changes and collagen deposition, respectively. Immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR were used to detect the number of aggregates of KCs, the expression of cytokines and activation of HSCs. Results: In the close group, H&E staining showed that the normal lobular structure was destroyed and inflammatory infiltration around the lesion could be observed, and Masson staining showed that blue collagen fibers were clearly deposited near the portal area. IHC showed that KCs surface markers CD68 and CD163, cytokine iNOS and Arg-1 were positively expressed in the vicinity of inflammatory lesions. qRT-PCR indicated that TNF-α, IL-10, and TGF-β1 secreted by KCs were significantly higher than those in the distance group (P < 0.01). It is worth noticing that the expression levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines were slightly higher than that of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Both IHC and qRT-PCR results showed that HSCs activation markers, the expression of α-SMA and Desmin significantly increased. Conclusions: Our research indicates that KCs have immune-protective effect of anti-echinococcosis and promote liver fiber repair, and it also suggests that they have potential therapeutic value for patients with hepatic AE.

Background: Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) is a negative costimulatory molecule, and its main function is widely considered to be in the regulation of T cells. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are an important part of the tumor microenvironment, and they also play an important role in immunosuppression. However, the relationship between the expression of PD-L1 and TAMs in cervical carcinoma (CC) remains unclear. We detected the expression of PD-L1 and TAMs in tumor tissue to study the correlation between them. Methods: Immunohistochemical staining of PD-L1, CD68 (pan-macrophage), and CD163 (M2-like macrophage) was performed in 120 cases of cervical squamous cell carcinoma. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the predictors related to positive PD-L1 expression. We also apply the Kaplan–Meier method to study the recurrence-free and overall survival rate of CC patients. Results: The increase in PD-L1 expression in tumor cells (TC) was significantly correlated with the increase in CD163 density (r=0.8550, p< 0.0001), while PD-L1 in the stroma was also significantly associated with the intratumoral density of CD68- or CD163-positive cells (CD68 p< 0.0001; CD163 p=0.0009). The mean infiltration rates of CD68- and CD163-positive cells in PD-L1-positive TC were significantly higher than in PD-L1-negative TC (CD68 p=0.0095; CD163 p< 0.0001). In multivariate logistic regression analyses, only the density of CD163-positive cells was correlated with the expression of PD-L1 in TC cells (OR 1.52; p=0.032). In prognostic analysis, PD-L1 more than 10% was significantly correlated with short RFS (HR=2.66; p=0.028). For CD163⁺ macrophage evaluation, the density above the median was also significantly correlated with RFS (HR=2.48; p=0.021). Conclusion: CD163⁺ M2-like macrophage infiltration is highly associated with PD-L1 expression in CC, suggesting that macrophage infiltration can serve as a potential therapeutic target.