Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jan;42(1):89-100.
doi: 10.1002/eji.201141825. Epub 2011 Dec 12.

Macrophages in human colorectal cancer are pro-inflammatory and prime T cells towards an anti-tumour type-1 inflammatory response

Siew-Min Ong  1 , Yann-Chong Tan, Ottavio Beretta, Dongsheng Jiang, Wei-Hseun Yeap, June J Y Tai, Wing-Cheong Wong, Henry Yang, Herbert Schwarz, Kiat-Hon Lim, Poh-Koon Koh, Khoon-Lin Ling, Siew-Cheng Wong
Affiliations
Free article

Macrophages in human colorectal cancer are pro-inflammatory and prime T cells towards an anti-tumour type-1 inflammatory response

Siew-Min Ong et al. Eur J Immunol. 2012 Jan.
Free article

Abstract

High macrophage infiltration into tumours often correlates with poor prognoses; in colorectal, stomach and skin cancers, however, the opposite is observed but the mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain unclear. Here, we sought to understand how tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) in colorectal cancer execute tumour-suppressive roles. We found that TAMs in a colorectal cancer model were pro-inflammatory and inhibited the proliferation of tumour cells. TAMs also produced chemokines that attract T cells, stimulated proliferation of allogeneic T cells and activated type-1 T cells associated with anti-tumour immune responses. Using colorectal tumour tissues, we verified that TAMs in vivo were indeed pro-inflammatory. Furthermore, the number of tumour-infiltrating T cells correlated with the number of TAMs, suggesting that TAMs could attract T cells; and indeed, type-1 T cells were present in the tumour tissues. Patient clinical data suggested that TAMs exerted tumour-suppressive effects with the help of T cells. Hence, the tumour-suppressive mechanisms of TAMs in colorectal cancer involve the inhibition of tumour cell proliferation alongside the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and promoting type-1 T-cell responses. These new findings would contribute to the development of future cancer immunotherapies based on enhancing the tumour-suppressive properties of TAMs to boost anti-tumour immune responses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms