The Expression Of Lewis Y Antigen (Le～Y) In Human Cervical Carcinoma Tissues And Its Clinical Significance

ObjectiveCervical carcinoma is the second most common cancer in women worldwide less than breast carcinoma. And in some developing countries cervical carcinoma is the most common cancer. There are about 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer in the world every year, and about 200,000 patients die from it. The incidence and mortality of cervical cancer in China is one third as that of the world. So to reduce the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer is a challenge for the doctors in our country. Since 50% patients with CIN III can be cured. Carcinogenesis includes many factors and steps, and HPV is one of the etiologi-cal factors of cervical cancer. Previous studies have found that it takes about 20 years from HPV infection to the occurrence of cancer. Recently, patients with cervical carcinoma have becoming younger than before, particular patients under 30 years old obviously increase, at the meantime, the serious degree is out of image. Carbohydrates with fucose are associated with cellular functions such as cellular adhesion, recognition and signal transduction. As the ligand of E/P se-lectin, sialylLe and sialylLe'are important for the mechanism of carcinoma metastasis. There are many types of fucosyl carbohydrates such as Le^a, Le^b, Le^X, Le^Y, SLe^x, SDLe^x, H antigen and so on. Ogawa et. have detected Le^Y antigen in paraffin specimen of cervical adenocarcinoma by immunohistochemical methods, and found that Le antigen was expressed in column reserve cells, which suggested that the expression of Le^Y is associated with occurrence, progression and differentiation of carcinoma. Only a few studies on the relationship between the expression of Le antigen and the biological characteristics of cervical carci-noma have been reported abroad, but non in China. In this study, to discuss the relationship between the expression of Le^Y antigen in cervical carcinoma and the biological characteristics of cervical carcinoma, we detected the expression in the tissue of cervical carcinoma, cervical beguin disorders and normal cervix by immunohistochemical methods, and analyzed the relationship between the expression of Le antigen and the biological characteristics of cervical carcinoma.Subject and Methods1. SubjectThe paraffin specimen from 42 patients with cervical carcinoma, 35 patients with CIN, 12 patients with normal cervix, who were treated and accept operation at the second Affiliated hospital of CMU between January, 2002 and April, 2004, were included in this study. All cases were diagnosed by the pathological department of the second Affiliated hospital of CMU. The age of 42 patients with cervical carcinoma is from 25 to 69 years. The mean age is 41.9 years. Clinical stage at the time of diagnosis was according to FIGO. There were 10 patients with cervical adenocarcinoma and 32 with cervical squamous carcinoma according to the pathological characters. 12 patients with well - differentiated type of cervical carcinoma, 15 with moderately differentiated type and 15 with poor -differentiated type. In the 35 patients with CIN, 11 were CIN I, 11 were CIN II, and 13 were CIN III.2. Materials and Instrument2.1 AgentsMouse anti - Le^Y monoclone antibody, 4% paraformaldehyde, 3% H₂O₂, Streptavidin -Peroxidase kit, 0.05M PBS, 10% gold serum, EDTA, DBA, he-matoxylin.2.2 main Instrumentmicrotome, Microwave oven, microscope,3. MethodsLe^Y staining uses a set of methods of SP. The main steps: the tissue sections were deparaffinized, hydrated in a graded ethanol series, and immersed in3% hydrogen peroxide to block endogenous peroxidase activity . The slides were then washed in 0.05M PBS, ph7.4, and subsequently treated with 10% normal goat serum to inhibit nonspecific binding of antisera . The primary monoclonal antibody was applied for 12h at 4℃. After rinsing in PBS , they were then treated with avidin - biotin - peroxidase complex at 37℃. Sites of peroxidase activity were visualized with DAB. The slides were counterstained with hematoxyine for ten minutes. And image analysis system for quality and quantity tests using SPSS11.0.4. Interpretation of staining resultsThe expression of Le^Y was mainly shown on the cell membrane and partly in cytoplasm. All samples were analyzed using the following criteria: Presence and extent of staining, using the following scale: 0 = no staining, 1 = staining of < 10% of tumor cells,2 = staining of 10% -30% of tumor cells, 3 = staining of >30% of tumor cells; Staining intensity, using the following scale: 0 = no staining , 1 = light of yellow, 2 = brown yellow, 3 = deeply yellow. The two factors multiply 0 -1 is ( - ) , the two factors multiply 2-3 is ( + ) , the two factors multiply 4-5 is ( + +), the two factors multiply >5 is ( + + +).5. Statistical analysisStatistical analysis was performed using the SPSS11.0 package. Probability of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsThe positive rate of Le^Y expressed in cervical cancer is 52.4% and in CIN is 45.7% , which are significantly higher than that in normal cervical tissue (8. 3% ) , P <0.05. The positive rate of Le^Y expressed in CIN I, CIN II, CIN III are 27. 3% 27. 3% ,76. 9% , respectively. It is remarkably higher in CIN III than in CIN II or in CIN I. The positive rate of Le^Y expressed in cervical cancer with clinical I stage is 60.0% and with clinical II stage is 45.5%. But it is not significant, P >0.05. The positive rate of Le^Y expressed in well - differentiated cells, moderately - differentiated cells and poor - differentiated cells is 33. 3% , 33.3% , 86.7% , respectively. It is higher in poor - differentiated cells...