Expression And Significance Of Claudin-1,3,4,7in The Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia And Invasive Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background and Purpose:Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) is a group of precancerous lesions and closely related of cervical cancer, including cervical dysplasia and carcinoma in situ. In recent years,increasingly incidence and the young tendency of cervical cancer cause worldwide attention. The early diagnosis and proper treatment of CIN would restrain the irreversible invasive carcinoma effectively in the precancerous stage. For prevention of cervical cancer, it has important significance to research the mechanism of the CIN and explore effective treatment measures.Tight junction (TJ) exist in epithelial cells and endothelial cells of the body, it is through its fence and barrier function to maintain epithelial and endothelial cells of normal structure and function. Claudins are important components of TJ structure and function. Abnormal expression of Claudins in many epithelial malignant tumor have been found in recent studies. Claudins provides a new way for the diagnosis and treatment of tumor. The expression and the role of Claudins in CIN and cervical carcinoma is not clear, need to be further studied.In order to find a new way for early diagnosis of CIN and invasive squamous cellcarcinoma (ISCC), immunohistochemistry method was used to detect changes in theexpression of Claudin1,3,4,7proteins in normal uterine cervical tissue, CIN andISCC. The correlation of expression of Claudin1and Claudin7protein, Claudin3andClaudin4protein were also analyzed in the progression of the disease.Methods:1. Expressions of Claudin1,3,4,7proteins were detected byimmunohistochemistry in9cases of normal cervical tissue,12cases of CIN1and15cases of CIN2,28cases of CIN3,22cases of ISCC.2. SPSS13.0software was used toanalyze the data. χ2test was used to compare the immunohistochemical positive rates ofClaudin1,3,4,7proteins between the normal group, CIN1/2group, CIN3group, andISCC group. χ2test were also used to compare the clinical pathological parameters andthe immunohistochemical positive rates. Spearman rank correlation analysis was used toanalyze the correlation of Claudin1and Claudin7proteins expression, Claudin3andClaudin4proteins expression.Results:1. From the progression of normal cervical tissue to CIN1/2, CIN3and ISCC,the expression of Claudin1,3,4,7proteins increased gradually. Significantly increasedexpression of Claudin1,3,4,7proteins were detected in the CIN3and ISCC comparedwith the normal tissue and CIN1/2(P<0.05). There were no significant differences ofClaudin1,3,4,7proteins expression between CIN3and ISCC (P>0.05).2. With theprogression of cervical neoplasia, significant positive correlations were found betweenthe expression of Claudin1and Claudin7proteins, Claudin3and Claudin4proteins.No significant association were found between the expression of claudin1,3,4,7proteins and the status of age, cell differentiation, TNM staging system and tumor nodemetastasis stage.Conclusions: The expression of Claudin1,3,4,7may have association with malignanttransformation of cervical squamous epithelium. They maybe used as assistant index for early diagnosis of CIN and cervical carcinoma.