Abstract:Objective: To study the expression of chemokine receptor CCR5 in follicular thyroid carcinoma and the serum level of CCR5 ligand, so as to assess the role of CCR.5 in progression and metastasis of follicular thyroid carcinoma. Methods: Fifteen samples of follicular thyroid carcinoma, 17 samples of follicular thyroid adenoma and 12 adjacent normal samples were analyzed immunohistochemically for CCR5 expression. The sera concentrations of CCL3, CCL4 and CCL5 were measured by ELISA in all patients. Results: CCR5 was positive in follicular thyroid carcinoma samples, with the positive rate being 73. 33%, and was not detected in the follicular thyroid adenoma and the normal samples(P〈0.01). The concentrations of CCL3 and CCL5 in the sera of follicular thyroid carcinoma patients were significantly higher than those of the other 2 groups (P〈0.05). Conclusion: CCR5 is highly expressed in follicular thyroid carcinoma tissues and the concentrations of CCL3 and CCL5 are obviously increased in the sera of patients, indicating that CCR5 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of follicular thyroid carcinoma