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PTPROt maintains T cell immunity in the microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinoma Free
Jiajie Hou1,3, Lei Deng1, Han Zhuo1, Zhe Lin1, Yun Chen1, Runqiu Jiang1, Dianyu Chen1, Xudong Zhang1, Xingxu Huang2, and Beicheng Sun1,*
1Liver Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
2MOE Key Laboratory of Model Animal for Disease Study, Model Animal Research Center of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
3Present address: Liver Transplantation Center, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China *Correspondence to:Beicheng Sun, E-mail: sunbc@njmu.edu.cn
J Mol Cell Biol, Volume 7, Issue 4, August 2015, 338-350,  https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjv047
Keyword: PTPROt, Teff, Treg, hepatocellular carcinoma

Intratumoral T cells play a central role in anti-tumor immunity, and the balance between T effector cells (Teff) and regulatory T cells (Treg) affects the prognosis of cancer patients. However, educated by tumor microenvironment, T cells frequently fail in their responsibility. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of truncated isoform of protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor-type O (PTPROt) in T cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity. We recruited 70 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients and 30 healthy volunteers for clinical investigation, and analyzed cellular tumor immunity by using ptpro−/− C57BL/6 mice and NOD/SCID mice. PTPROt expression was significantly downregulated in human HCC-infiltrating T cells due to the hypoxia microenvironment; PTPROt expression highly correlated with the intratumoral Teff/Treg ratio and clinicopathologic characteristics. Moreover, PTPROt deficiency attenuated T cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity and remarkably promoted mouse HCC growth. Mechanistically, deletion of PTPROt decreased Teff quantity and quality through phosphorylation of lymphocyte-specific tyrosine kinase, but increased Treg differentiation through phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 5. In support of the Teff/Treg homeostasis, PTPROt serves as an important tumor suppressor in HCC microenvironment.