Objective:

Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the world. Research on the pathogenesis and detailed molecular mechanisms of liver cancer is very important. The immune system plays an important role in regulating the incidence and metastasis of liver cancer.

Materials and methods:

This work collected 20 blood samples from patients with clinical hepatocellular carcinoma without metastasis, 20 blood samples from patients with metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma, and 20 blood samples from healthy subjects. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the content of Treg and Th2 cells in the three groups of blood samples. Immunofluorescence was applied to analyze the relative expression of CTLA-4 and CD28 in lymphocytes of each group of blood samples. Western blot was used to analyze the T cell surface protein CTLA-4, CD28, GATA3, and FOXP3 expression in each group of blood samples.

Results:

The expression of CD28 and GATA3 in the blood of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma without metastasis was obviously higher than that of patients with metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma, which is contrary to the expression trend of CTLA-4 and FOXP3, and corresponds to the content ratio of Treg and Th2 cells, thus verifying the relationship between Treg/Th2 ratio and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Conclusions:

In the microenvironment of liver cancer, the ratio of Treg/Th2 will increase significantly, thereby promoting the metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.