Tim-3 is highly expressed in T cells in acute myeloid leukemia and associated with clinicopathological prognostic stratification.

Abstract

T cells immunoglobulin mucin 3 (Tim-3) is an important inhibitory stimulatory molecule, which has been reported to play a vital role in the tumor immune escape and be correlated with clinicopathological prognostic stratification in solid tumor. However, the related research is rare of Tim-3 in non-solid tumor, such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In this study, we investigated the expression characteristics of Tim-3 on the peripheral blood T cells of newly diagnosed AML patients and its clinical significance. Peripheral blood was obtained from 36 patients with newly diagnosed AML before intervention, with peripheral blood from 20 cases of healthy volunteers collected as normal control. Expression levels of Tim-3 on the peripheral blood T cells were assayed with flow cytometry. We found that Tim-3 expression on the peripheral blood CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells in newly diagnosed AML patients were significantly increased compared with that of normal control. CD4+ T cells/CD8+ T cell ratio (CD4/CD8) of peripheral blood in AML patients was significantly correlated with NCCN high risk group. The higher expression level of Tim-3 on CD4+ T cells in the peripheral blood of AML patients had significant correlation with FLT3-ITD mutation, the higher expression level of Tim-3 on CD8+ T cells in AML patients was significantly correlated with NCCN high risk group. To conclude, our results support the concept that Tim-3 is highly expressed on the peripheral blood T cells of AML patients, and Tim-3 expression significantly correlates with clinicopathological prognostic stratification in AMLTim-3, T cell, acute myeloid leukemia, tumor immune escape, clinicopathological prognostic stratification.