The Expression Of Survivin And Its Correlation With Caspase-3 In Ovarian Carcinoma

Objective:To detect the expression of Survivin and Caspase-3 in normal ovaries,benign ovarian tumors and epithelial ovarian carcinomas,and study their association with clinicopathological factors in ovarian carcinoma. The aim was to study how Survivin plays an important role in the occurrence,progression,diagnosis,therapy and prognosis of ovarian carcinoma and study the correlation of Survivin and Caspase-3 in the occurrence and progression of ovarian carcinoma,so as to demonstrate the potential use of Survivin as a diagnostic and therapeutic agent.Methods:Immunohistochemical technique is used to evaluate the expression of Survivin and Caspase-3 in 30 normal ovaries, 30 benign ovarian tumors and 60 epithelial ovarian carcinomas. The level of Survivin and Caspase-3 expression in 60 epithelial ovarian carcinomas was analyzed against clinical pathological factors such as clinical stage and histological grade.Morover,Survivin expression in comparison with Caspase-3 expression was investigated preliminarily.Results:1. Survivin was found in cytoplasms of epithelial ovarian carcinomas by immunochemistry. The absence of Survivin staining in normal ovaries has been demonstrated. And the expression of Survivin in epithelial ovarian carcinomas was significantly higher than its in benign ovarian tumors(P＜0.05).2. In epithelial ovarian carcinomas,the expression of Survivin was markedly increased during progression from early to advanced tumour clinical stages(F=3.425, P＜0.05). Survivin level was significantly higher inⅢ-Ⅳstage than inⅠ-Ⅱstage ovarian tumors (t=2.772, P＜0.05). But it did not significantly change for other clinicopathological factors,such as age of patients,the CA125 level before surgery, ascitic fluid,tumor size,histological grade,pathological type (P＞0.05).3. The patients with higher expression of Survivin had less favourable chemotherapeutic effect than those with lower or negative expression(P＜0.05)4. The patients with higher expression of Survivin had less favourable prognosis than those with lower or negative expression(P＜0.05).5. The expression of Caspase-3 was 80.0%, 40.0%, 1.4% respectively in normal ovaries,benign ovarian tumors and epithelial ovarian carcinomas(P＜0.05).6. The expression of Survivin was positive correlated with the expression of Caspase-3 in epithelial ovarian carcinomas (rs=-0.282, P＜0.05).Conclusion:The absence of Survivin staining in normal ovaries has been demonstrated. And the expression of Survivin in epithelial ovarian carcinomas was significantly higher than that in benign ovarian tumors.Survivin plays an important role in the occurrence and progression of ovarian carcinoma.To compare with the higher expression of Survivin and the lower or negative expression of Survivin patients who receive chemotherapy after surgery, we can conclude that higher expression patients have less favourable chemotherapeutic effect than lower or negative expression patients.Survivin may be an important factor to promote the chemoresistance in ovarian carcinoma.It is also found that the expression of Survivin is positive correlated with the expression of Caspase-3 in ovarian carcinomas,which suggests Survivin might induce the apoptosis by decreasing the effect of Caspase-3.