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Abstract：
The immune escape of tumor cells and functional status of tumor-infiltrating T cells may serve pivotal roles in the tumor immune microenvironment and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The present study enrolled 91 patients with HCC and examined programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression in tumor cells and CD39 expression in tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells in patient samples using multiplex immunofluorescence assays. The impact of PD-L1 and CD39 expression levels on the prognosis of patients with HCC was investigated utilizing Kaplan-Meier analyses. The individual upregulation of PD-L1 in tumor cells, as well as the individual upregulation of CD39 expression in tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells did not significantly affect the prognosis of patients with HCC. However, the simultaneous upregulation of both PD-L1 in tumor cells and CD39 in tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells was associated with reduced overall survival in patients with HCC. Therefore, the results of the present study suggested that the interplay between tumor cell immune escape and tumor-infiltrating immune cell functional status within the tumor immune microenvironment may have had a substantial impact on the prognosis of patients with HCC. Mechanistically, increased expression levels of PD-L1 in tumor cells may improve the immune escape capacity of tumors, whilst upregulation of CD39 in tumor-infiltrating T cells may be associated with T cell exhaustion. Therefore, the upregulation of PD-L1 expression in tumor cells, in conjunction with the exhaustion of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells, could serve as a future potential prognostic indicator of patients with HCC.
摘要：
肿瘤细胞的免疫逃逸和肿瘤浸润T细胞的功能状态可能在肿瘤免疫微环境和肝细胞癌（HCC）的进展中起关键作用。本研究招募了91例HCC患者，并使用多重免疫荧光测定法检查了肿瘤细胞中程序性细胞死亡配体1（PD-L1）的表达和患者样品中肿瘤浸润性CD8T细胞中CD39的表达。利用Kaplan-Meier分析研究了PD-L1和CD39表达水平对HCC患者预后的影响。肿瘤细胞中PD-L1的个体上调，以及肿瘤浸润性CD8+T细胞中CD39表达的个体上调并没有显著影响HCC患者的预后。然而,肿瘤细胞中PD-L1和肿瘤浸润性CD8+T细胞中CD39的同时上调与HCC患者的总生存率降低相关.因此,本研究的结果表明,肿瘤免疫微环境中肿瘤细胞免疫逃逸与肿瘤浸润免疫细胞功能状态之间的相互作用可能对HCC患者的预后产生重大影响.机械上,肿瘤细胞中PD-L1的表达水平升高可能提高肿瘤的免疫逃逸能力,而肿瘤浸润性T细胞中CD39的上调可能与T细胞耗尽有关。因此,肿瘤细胞中PD-L1表达上调，结合肿瘤浸润性CD8+T细胞的耗尽，可以作为肝癌患者未来的潜在预后指标。
