CD163 and CCR7 markers for macrophage polarisation in patients with lung cancer

Macrophages M2 play a role in suppression of immune anticancer response and that the predominance of M2 was found in resected tumors. However little is known about macrophage polarization in advanced stages of cancer, in which the immune response may be evaluated by bronchoalveolar lavage fluid BALF examination. The aim of study was detection of M1 and M2 in the BALF from lung affected by cancer clBALF and healthy lung hlBALF from the same patient. 17 patients with confirmed lung cancer were investigated. M subtyping was performed by immunofluorescence with antibodies anti CCR7 and CD163 (M1 and M2). TGF-β1, IL10 concentration were measured by ELISA. We found five populations of macrophage according to CCR7 and CD163 expression The median proportion of cells were as follow The median proportion of TGF-β1 concentration was higer in lcBALF than in hBALF (34.2 vs. 16.1 pg/ml pu003e0.05), IL10 concentration was under limit. We observed elevated proportion of CCR7 low CD163+ cells and TGF-β1 concentration in lcBALF and CCR7+CD163 low cells in BALF from hBALF. This may indicate an activity of immunosuppressive macrophages M2 in lung cancer and provides direction for future research.