Aberrant promoter methylation and loss of suppressor of cytokine signalling-1 gene expression in the development of uterine cervical carcinogenesis.

摘要

Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer related deaths in women worldwide caused due to infection of high-risk human papillomaviruses. As JAK/STAT signalling pathway has been shown to play an important role during carcinogenesis, we studied the role of silencing of Suppressor of Cytokine Signalling-1 (SOCS-1) gene, a negative regulator of JAK/STAT pathway in cervical cancer.The expression pattern of SOCS-1 mRNA and protein was analyzed in different stages of cervical tumor biopsies while normal cervical tissues served as controls. RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry and methylation-specific PCR (MSP) were performed to assess the expression pattern and promoter methylation of SOCS-1 gene in a total of 120 fresh surgically resected cervical tissue specimens comprising precancer (n?=?12), cancer (n?=?78) and normal controls (n?=?30).Compared with expression of SOCS-1 in normal tissues, 64% of the tumor tissues expressed either undetectable or reduced expression. Aberrant promoter methylation of SOCS-1 was found in 61% of the cervical tumor tissues. SOCS-1 expression and methylation were significantly associated with severity of the disease (p?