Abstract: Objective  To analyze the expression levels of CXC receptor 5（CXCR5)，chemokine C-X-C motif ligand-13（CXCL-13）and IL-21 in the peripheral blood of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC) and to evaluate their correlation with clinicopathological characteristics.
Methods  A total of 65 patients with ESCC and 30 healthy people were enrolled in this research. The peripheral blood samples were collected and the expression levels of soluble CXCR5（sCXCR5）, soluble CXCL13（sCXCL13）and IL-21 were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).
Results  The levels of sCXCR5, sCXCL13 and IL-21 were increased in the ESCC group, as compared with normal control group(P＜0.05); the expression levels of sCXCR5, sCXCL13 and IL-12 had no remarkable difference in the ESCC group before and after surgery(P＞0.05). The expression levels of sCXCL13 and IL-21 were not statistically different between groups with different clinicopathological characteristics(P＞0.05), but the expression levels of sCXCR5 were statistically different between groups with different tumor volumes(P＜0.05). There were no significant correlation between the levels of sCXCR5, sCXCL13 and IL-21.
Conclusion  The expression levels of Tfh cell-related factors sCXCR5, sCXCL13 and IL-21 were higher in ESCC patients than in healthy people. Moreover, sCXCR5 expression was associated with tumor volume, suggesting that Tfh cells might be involved in the occurrence and development of ESCC.

Key words: esophageal neoplasms；carcinoma, squamous cell, receptors, CXCR5, chemokine CXCL13