Background
Severe trauma causes compensatory changes in immune, neural, endocrine, and metabolic function [
1]. Likewise, surgical stress can lead to the onset of prothrombotic and immunosuppressive changes during the postoperative period [
2,
3]. Correlative studies have confirmed an association between postoperative complications, immune suppression, and worsened cancer prognosis [
4‐
7]. Moreover, our group and others have proposed surgery-induced cellular immune suppression as a primary factor in the progression of cancer, including local recurrence and metastatic disease [
8‐
20]. In humans, suppression of the cellular immune response following major surgery appears to peak at 3 days [
21], but can also persist for weeks [
17,
22,
23]. These immunosuppressive changes are characterized by an imbalance in plasma cytokine levels (i.e. a decrease in the levels of interleukin (IL)-2 [
24] and IL-12 [
25] and an increase in the levels of IL-6 [
24,
26,
27] and IL-10 [
28]) and a decrease in the number and function of circulating CD8
+ T cells [
29], dendritic cells [
30], and natural killer (NK) cells [
8,
12,
31]. Specifically, our group reported on the association between coagulation and NK cell function in the development of metastases following cancer surgery [
8]; while, more recently, we employed validated murine models of surgical stress and spontaneous metastases [
11] to provide in vivo evidence of global NK cell dysfunction in postoperative metastatic disease.
Modern surgical techniques minimize the adverse consequences of perioperative events, such as intraoperative blood loss, sepsis, and hypothermia. Despite this, however, severe intraoperative blood loss occurs in approximately 6–10% of patients with advanced cancer [
32], while surgery accounts for 30% of all sepsis diagnoses in the US annually [
33]. Furthermore, 8.5% of all cancer-related deaths are due to the concurrent onset of severe sepsis [
34], and hypothermia, which is defined as a core body temperature of < 36 °C, occurs in 70% of postoperative patients [
35].
Clinical studies in cancer patients have confirmed an association between perioperative factors such as hypothermia [
36], blood loss [
37,
38], and postoperative infections [
39,
40], and increased cancer recurrence and reduced cancer-specific survival following cancer surgery.
Despite the epidemiological evidence linking perioperative complications with increased surgical stress and worsened cancer outcomes, the role of intraoperative blood loss, sepsis, and hypothermia in immunosuppression and metastatic disease remains poorly understood. Our study incorporates three surgical murine models of colorectal cancer (CRC) to investigate the effect of blood loss, sepsis, and hypothermia on NK cell function and metastatic disease. Taking measures to reduce perioperative complications and/or employing preoperative neoadjuvant immunotherapy will help to improve survival outcomes and reduce cancer recurrence.
Methods
Cell lines
CT26LacZ mouse colon carcinoma and YAC-1 mouse lymphoma cells were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA). CT26LacZ cells were cultured in HyQ high glucose Dulbecco’s modified Eagles medium (GE healthcare, Mississauga, ON, CA) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (CanSera, Etobicoke, ON, CA). YAC-1 cells were cultured in HyClone™ Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium (RPMI)-1640 medium (GE healthcare, Mississauga, ON, CA) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (CanSera, Etobicoke, ON, CA) and 1× of Penicillin/Streptomycin (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA).
Animals
Female age-matched (6–8 weeks old at study initiation) BALB/c mice (Charles River Laboratories, Wilmington, MA, USA) were housed in specific pathogen-free conditions. The number of mice employed per experiment is indicated in the figure legends. Animal studies complied with the Canadian Council on Animal Care guidelines and were approved by the University of Ottawa Animal Research Ethics Board.
Mice were subjected to 2.5% isofluorane (Baxter Corporations, Mississauga, ON, CA) for the induction and maintenance of anesthesia. Routine perioperative care for mice, including the subcutaneous administration of buprenorphine (0.05 mg/kg) for pain control the day of surgery and every 8 h for 2 days following surgery, was conducted in concordance with University of Ottawa protocols. Surgical stress was induced via an abdominal laparotomy (i.e. 3-cm midline incision), which was preceded by an intravenous challenge with 3e5 CT26LacZ cells to establish pulmonary metastases. Abdominal laparotomy was commenced 10 min following tumor inoculation, as previously described [
11]. Animals were euthanized at 18 h or 3 days following tumor inoculation and their lungs were stained with X-gal (Bioshop Canada Inc., Burlington, ON, CA), as described previously [
41]. The total number of surface metastases on the largest lung lobe (left lobe) were quantified using a stereomicroscope (Leica Microsystems, Richmond Hill, ON, CA).
Hypovolemic stress model
Hypovolemia was induced by preoperatively bleeding mice prior to tumour inoculation. Mice were bled either 20% (300 uL) or 30% (450 uL) of their total blood volume by puncturing the saphenous vein just above the foot. Systolic arterial pressure (SAP) in conscious mice before and after saphenous vein bleeding was measured using a tail-cuff sphygmomanometer. Mice were kept in a warmed black box and an inflatable cuff was applied to the base of the tail. The tail of each mouse was then placed on a piezoelectric sensor for analysis of the pressure waveforms.
Hypothermia stress model
Intraoperative hypothermic shock was induced by placing mice directly on the metal surgical surface without a heating pad immediately following tumour inoculation. Mice were kept under hypothermic conditions and anesthesia for approximately 2 h and were subsequently housed under normothermic conditions. Rectal temperatures were recorded every 15 min throughout the procedure to verify that hypothermia was maintained.
Sepsis stress model
Intraoperative polymicrobial sepsis was induced in mice by cecal puncture at the time of abdominal laparotomy (i.e. 3-cm midline incision). Polymicrobial sepsis was confirmed by Gram stain of peritoneal lavage fluid, which was isolated 18 h following surgery. Bacterial counts were determined by serial dilution of peritoneal lavage fluid and overnight culture on tryptic soy broth agar plates at 37 °C. We also investigated whether antibiotic treatment with Imipenem, which was administered intravenously at 0.5 mg, or treatment with poly(I:C), a toll-like receptor (TLR)-3 ligand, at 150 μg/200 μL PBS had an impact on lung tumour burden.
Ex-vivo NK cell cytotoxicity assay
Chromium-release assays were conducted as previously described [
42]. Briefly, splenocytes were isolated from surgically stressed and control mice 18 h after surgery (
n = 3 for each treatment group and each E:T ratio). Pooled and sorted NK cells were resuspended at a concentration of 2.5 × 10
6 cells/mL. These cells were then mixed with chromium-labeled YAC-1 target cells, which were resuspended at a concentration of 3 × 10
4 cells/mL at various effector-to-target (E:T) ratios (i.e. 50:1, 25:1, 12:1, and 6:1).
Statistical analysis
Statistical tests were performed using GraphPad Prism (GraphPad, San Diego, CA, USA). One-way ANOVAs, factorial ANOVAs with Tukey correction for multiple comparisons, and student’s t-tests with equal variances were conducted. Data were reported as the mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). An alpha value of < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Discussion
Perioperative complications, specifically infection, decrease long-term survival [
5,
43] and promote recurrence in patients with CRC [
44]. Although hypovolemia in the absence of surgical stress did lead to an increase in pulmonary metastases, our findings demonstrate that neither severe intraoperative hypovolemia nor hypothermia impact the prometastatic effects of surgical stress. Correlative clinical studies confirm that postoperative infections following surgery can accelerate the time to cancer recurrence [
45‐
47]. Here, using murine models we demonstrate that polymicrobial sepsis in conjunction with surgical stress facilitates the development of perioperative lung metastases. Our results suggest that the combined immunosuppressive effects of surgical trauma and sepsis dampen anti-tumour immune responses, ultimately leading to an increase in metastases. In addition to the immunosuppressive effects of surgical stress, severe sepsis can induce lymphocyte exhaustion [
48], apoptosis of immune cells [
49,
50], and a predominance of immunoregulatory cells, including regulatory T cells [
51,
52] and myeloid-derived suppressor cells [
53]. This highly suppressive environment likely worsens the already immunosuppressive environment present in most cancer patients in need of surgical intervention [
54,
55]. Thus, the immunosuppressive effects of surgery, sepsis, and cancer may interact to severely dampen immune activation and increase the likelihood of cancer recurrence and metastatic disease.
Our findings also suggest that sepsis induces its prometastatic effect by inhibiting NK cell cytotoxic function. In the cancer microenvironment, the anti-tumour function of NK cells is suppressed [
56], while a decrease in NK cell number and function in patients undergoing surgery for CRC is associated with heightened mortality and cancer recurrence suggesting that the suppressive effects of sepsis likely exacerbate the already impaired NK cell function [
57,
58]. In agreement with our findings, previous studies have demonstrated that sepsis in a non-surgical context can impair NK cell cytotoxicity [
59], a finding that has been attributed to a heightened activation of regulatory cell subsets [
60]. In particular, murine sepsis models have shown that an increase in regulatory T cells contributes to post-sepsis immunosuppression and potentiates tumour growth [
61]. NK cells are a critical component of anti-tumour immunity and so, based on our findings, we suggest that the inhibition of NK cell function is a key player in perioperative cancer recurrence following surgical stress and septic insult.
Tumour-infiltrating NK cells and lymphocytes are associated with improved prognosis in several malignancies [
62‐
66]. The enhancement of preoperative NK cell activation with PolyI:C, a TLR3 ligand, to counteract the immunosuppressive effects of surgery and sepsis and attenuate perioperative metastases formation is largely in agreement with the inhibitory effects of poly(I:C) upon tumour outgrowth in non-surgical models of lung metastases [
67]. While polyI:C is ineffective in primates because of inactivation by natural enzymes, other NK stimulators, such as poly-ICLC [
68] (stabilized with poly-lysine) or a virus-derived TLR agonist, like the influenza vaccine, could be safely and effectively employed in the perioperative period. Taken together, boosting NK cell activation may counteract the immunosuppressive effects of sepsis and protect against the development of metastatic disease and has potential as a perioperative cancer immunotherapeutic strategy.
Conclusions
In conclusion, our study is the first to utilize a murine model to investigate the effects of surgical complications on cancer recurrence in the perioperative period. Our findings demonstrate that intraoperative sepsis, but not intraoperative blood loss or hypothermia, contributes to the development of greater metastatic disease. We also demonstrate that perioperative sepsis-induced metastases are mediated by a suppression of NK cell cytotoxicity and can be reversed by TLR-mediated stimulation of NK cells. Further studies are required to determine whether enhancing NK cell function can prevent the development of perioperative metastatic disease in patients undergoing cancer surgery.