IL-10⁺CD19⁺ regulatory B cells induce CD4⁺Foxp3⁺regulatory T cells in serum of cervical cancer patients

Abstract

Increase of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the tumour microenvironment predicts worse survival of patients with various types of cancer. Recently, B cells play a significant role in the maintenance of Treg cells. However, the relevance of regulatory B cells (Bregs) to tumour immunity in humans remains elusive. Flow cytometry analysis was used to detect the Bregs and Tregs. Double staining results illustrated that the proportion of Bregs and Tregs were prominently higher in cervical cancer than normal tissues. Increase of Bregs and Tregs in cervical cancer microenvironment was associated with poor survival. Furthermore, Bregs cocultured with cervical cancer cell lines increased and induced Tregs. To sum up, the increased expression of Bregs contributes to the differentiation of CD4⁺ T cells into Tregs in the cervical cancer.

Keywords:

• cervical cancer
• T regulatory cells
• B regulatory cells
• IL-10
• CD19

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the patient, who agreed to allow us to publish the clinical data.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Guangzhou Health Science and Technology Project (20231A011097); Youth Research Support Program of Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (2017Q11); Medical Science and Technology Project of Henan Province (LHGJ20190596); and Henan Province Technology Development Project (202102310066).