Correlation of apoptosis with tumour cell differentiation, progression, and HPV infection in cervical carcinoma

摘要

Aims-To clarify the significance of apoptosis in the progression of uterine cervical neoplasias, including cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN), microinvasive carcinoma (MIC), and invasive squamous cell carcinoma (ISCC) categories, in relation to cell proliferation and human pa-pilloma virus (HPV) infection. Methods-Forty six cases of CIN Ⅰ/Ⅱ, 75 of CIN Ⅲ, 16 of MIC, and 44 of ISCC were examined using formalin fixed and paraffin wax embedded samples. The TdT mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labelling (TUNEL) method for detection of apoptotic cells was performed along with Ki-67 im-munohistochemistry. Presence of HPV-DNA was confirmed by PCR-RFLP assay. Results-Apoptotic labelling indices, calculated after counting positive nuclei among at least 2000 nuclei, showed significant positive correlation with histo-logical malignant grading in CIN and tumour cell invasion into stroma. In contrast, similar Ki-67 labelling index values were found in CIN, MIC, and ISCC. Although HPV-DNA was detected in 35/46 CIN Ⅰ/Ⅱ (76.1%), 53/74CIN Ⅲ (71.6%), 9/ 16 MIC (56.3%), and 36/44 ISCC (81.8%), there was no apparent relation with the apoptotic labelling indices. Conclusions-Apoptosis in cervical neoplasias may be closely related to tumour cell differentiation and progression. It also seems unlikely that HPV itself is directly related to pathways regulating apoptosis.