Detection of IL-6R and IL-6 in clinical specimens from NPC patients and control subjects.

<p>(A) Strong expression of IL-6R was found in the cancer cells of the NPC tissues but not in the normal nasopharyngeal epithelia. Tissue microarrays (TMAs) of 52 clinical specimens were analyzed for IL-6R by immunohistochemical staining. Representative image showing the expression of IL-6R in normal nasopharyngeal epithelium and NPC cancer cells was shown in the left and right panel respectively. A normal nasopharyngeal epithelium is enclosed by the two dotted yellow lines (in the left image). Underneath the normal nasopharyngeal epithelium are the associated lymphoid cells. A cluster of cancer cells is surrounded by the red dotted lines (in the right images). NPC is highly infiltrated with stromal cells. (B) The levels of IL-6 in sera measured by ELISA from NPC patients were significantly higher than the healthy controls (* <i>p</i><0.05). (C) Representative micrograph showing the expression of IL-6 in the stromal cells of a NPC tissue. An enlarged image of the enclosed area by black rectangle is shown aside.