Lipid metabolic characteristics of functionally exhausted CD8⁺ T cells in tumor microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective：To explore the lipid metabolic characteristics of functionally exhausted CD8+T cells in tumor microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods：By using flow cytometry analysis and real-time PCR to detect the functions and lipid metabolism-related proteins and genes expression of CD8+T cells in HCC and peri-tumor tissues, then the relationship between function and lipid metabolism was analyzed. Results：The infiltrated CD8+T cells in HCC have the following characteristics: functional exhaustion (decreased interferon-γ secretion and up regulated programmed death molecule-1 expression); down regulated expression of multiple fatty acid synthases, and the decreased content of intracellular fatty acids; impaired mitochondrial structure and function (P＜0.05). Conclusions：Fatty acid metabolism abnormalities are the characteristics of exhausted CD8+T cell infiltrated in HCC.