A clear population of Mo-MDSCs with the typical cell surface phenotype (CD14(+)HLA-DR(low/-)CD86(low/-)CD80(low/-)CD163(low/-)) increased significantly first during disease progression and correlated to metastasis to lymph nodes and visceral organs.
Distant metastasis was also associated with the eosinophil infiltration (P = 0.006); Stromal, intratumoral, invasive-margin, squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL), and perivascular tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs); CD68+, CD163+, and CD204+ macrophage infiltration.
Furthermore, Pearson's correlation analysis revealed that PFKFB3 was signifcantly correlated with both CD163 and CD31 (P<0.05), meanwhile CD163 was signifcantly correlated with CD31 (P<0.001), suggesting PFKFB3 may promote angiogenesis in tumor progression and metastases by regulating CD163+ TAMs infiltration in OSCC.
High CD163 levels (>50% of cells per core; 43.8% of patients) were associated with CMAF nuclear expression and significantly correlated with better overall survival (<i>p</i> = 0.0025) and longer metastasis progression-free survival (MPFS, <i>p</i> = 0.0315) independently of metastatic status (<i>p</i> = 0.002).
The macrophage differentiation at the primary tumor in the larynx was strongly CD163 positive supporting an immune permissive environment for tumor growth and metastasis.