ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Metabolism
Tumor-Associated Macrophage Expression in Colorectal Adenomas and Carcinomas: Relationship to Helicobacter pylori Infection
Provisionally accepted
- 1First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
- 2Affiliated Hospital of Anhui West Health Vocational College, Lu'an, China
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Objective: This study investigated the association between Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)i nfection and the expression of CD163⁺ and CD86⁺ tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in colorectal adenoma (CRA) and colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues. Methods: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to evaluate the expression of CD163+ and CD86+ TAMs isolated from colorectal tissues, Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) co-stainin g was employed to identify CD68⁺CD163⁺ and CD68⁺CD86⁺ TAMs, and the ¹⁴C-urea breath test (UBT) was used to detect H.pylori infection. Results: The progression of colorectal lesions was significantly associated with increased expr ession of CD163⁺ and CD86⁺ TAMs, as well as H.pylori infection (all P < 0.05). The expre ssion of CD163⁺ and CD86⁺ TAMs were positively correlated with each other and with these verity of colorectal lesions (all P < 0.001). Patients with H.pylori infection exhibited signific antly higher expression of both TAM subsets compared with non-infected individuals (all P < 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that in colorectal adenomas measuring ≥ 1 cm, expression of CD163⁺ and CD86⁺ TAM was significantly greater than in adenomas <1 cm (P < 0.05), Expression of CD163⁺ TAM was notably higher in obese patients with CR C. Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) quantification revealed significantly increased densitie s of both CD68⁺CD86⁺ and CD68⁺CD163⁺ TAMs, and a higher CD68⁺CD163⁺/CD68⁺CD86⁺ r atio in colorectal cancer (CRC) (all P < 0.001). Conclusions: The expression of CD68⁺CD163+ and CD68⁺CD86+ TAMs change dynamically with the progression of colorectal lesions. These changes are influenced by H.pylori infection, adenoma size, tumor differentiation, and patient metabolic status.
Keywords: CD163, CD86, colorectal adenomas, colorectal cancer, Helicobacter pylori
Received: 18 Jun 2025; Accepted: 04 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 wang, Zhu, Wang and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yueyong Zhu, zhuyueyong@fjmu.edu.cn
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