FIGURE 1 from Impact of Surgery-Induced Myeloid-derived Suppressor Cells and the NOX2/ROS Axis on Postoperative Survival in Human Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer surgery triggers inflammation and expansion of M-MDSC. A, Flow chart of included IPEP study participants. B, Study design and available samples. Absolute numbers of neutrophils (C), monocytes (D), and lymphocytes (E) in patients undergoing surgery for periampullary cancer with whole blood samples (differential counts) analyzed before (pre-op) and 1, 3–5 and 28 days after pancreatic cancer surgery (day 1, days 3–5, and day 28, respectively; N = 17 for pre-op, N = 16 for day 1, N = 15 for days 3–5, N = 11 for day 28). F, Plasma levels of IL6 in healthy donors (HD) and in pre- and post-op samples from patients (N = 16 for pre-op and for day 1, N = 15 for days 3–5, N = 9 for day 28, N = 6 for HD). G–I, CD14⁺HLADRlow M-MDSC in peripheral blood of healthy donors and patients before and after surgery analyzed by flow cytometry. G, Representative FACS plot of the frequency of CD14⁺HLADRlow cells among CD14⁺ cells. Absolute numbers (H) and frequencies (I) of M-MDSC (N = 17 for pre-op, N = 16 for day 1 and days 3–5, N = 10 for day 28, N = 12 for HD). J, M-MDSC levels of ROS as measured by DCFDA MFI (N = 16 for pre-op, for day 1 and for days 3–5, N = 10 for day 28, N = 12 for HD). Preoperative and postoperative samples were compared using mixed-effects analysis followed by Šídák multiple comparison test (P-values indicated by *). HD and cancer samples were compared using Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn multiple comparison test (P-values indicated by #). */#P < 0.05, ##P < 0.01, ***/###P < 0.001, ****/####P < 0.0001.