Expression Of Caspase-3 And Survivinin In Cholangioma And Its Implication

Objective To observe expression of survivin and caspase-3 in cholangiocarcinoma and investigate the relationship between their expression and clinicopathologic characters. Methods Immunohistochemical assay (streptavidin-biotin peroxidase method) was used to detect the expression of survivin and caspase-3 in 42 cholangiocarcinoma tissues, 20 adjacent noncancerous bile duct lesions and 11 benign bile duct lesions. The chi-square test and association analysis were used to evaluate the difference of significance. The SPSS 10.0 software package was used to conduct statistical analysis. Thep value < 0.05 was thought as statistally significant. Results Expression of survivin in cholangiocarcinoma tissues was detected in a significant higher proportion of (61.9%) than that in adjacent noncancerous (5%) tissue and in benign bile duct lesions (0%)(p<0.01). The expression of survivin in cholangiocarcinoma patients with poor differentiation was higher significantly than that of cholangiocarcinoma patients with middle or high differentiation. A trend of association of survivin expression with tumor stage was noted as follows: 47.8% advanced-stage (TNM I ~ II) cholangiocarcinomas expressed survivin, in comparison with 78.9% low stage (TNMHI~IV)(p < 0.05). The expression of Caspase-3 was significantly lower in cholangiocarcinoma (45.2%) than that in adjacent noncancerous (85.0%) and benign bile duct lesions (90.9%). The expression level of caspase-3 was also strongly correlated with low clinical stage and poor differentiation. The negative relationship between the expression of survivin and caspase-3 could be found with statistical significance (rs =-0.765, P<0.01). ConclusionHigh expression of survivin and low expression of caspase-3 may plays an important role in the development of cholangiocarcinoma. The abnormal expression of caspase-3 in cholangiocarcinoma and their correlation with survivin suggested that survivin might be depress the expression of caspase-3 to decrease the apoptosis of cholangiocarcinoma.