Expression And Clinical Significance Of Livin In Osteosarcoma

PrefaceInhibitor of apoptosis family of proteins (IAPs) are a very important sort of anit-apoptosis factors. The common structure characteristics of this family are the one or more than one tandem IAP repeated sequences on the N terminus and the ring finger structure on the C terminus. The universal property of tumor cell is anti apoptosis. IAP family is a kind of apoptosis regulator which is more and more respected by the scientists. There are 8 members in the IAP family and livin is a new one. Livin consists of one BIR domain and one RING finger domain. It can block many apoptosis pathways by inhibiting the activity of caspase 3,7 and 9 etc al . The of expression of livin in normal tissues is low or deficiency, while is high in human malignant tumor cell lines and most of the melanin cell lines, which indicates that livin may take roles during the formation and development of tumor. Livin is absent in normal urinary bladder tissue but is high expressed in urinary bladder caner cell, which make it can be a marker to determine the tendency of tumor recurrence. Nowadays, it was found that the expression of livin is overload in gastrointestinal tumors, such as stomach cancer, intestine cancer, pancreases cancer and liver caner. Yagihashi and his copartners indicate that livin is highly expressed in gastrointestinal cancer patients, and has some relationship with human gastrointestinal cancer formation. Hofimann and his copartners found that livin has the anti-apoptosis activity during the development of non-small cell pulmonary cancer. All the results indicate that the high expression of livin has close relationship with the formation of malignant cancers. The further investigation on livin has very important significance to discuss the formation, development, therapy and prevention of tumors.Osteosarcoma is a kind of malignant cancer which threats the health of human beings. The therapy of osteosarcoma is a hard work. Nowadays, the expression of livin in osteosarcoma has not reported both in China and aboard. So the further investigation on livin must have some significance.Methods30 pieces of osteosarcoma tissue were analyzed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PT-PCR) and Western Blot, using 20 pieces of normal tissues as control, to detect the expression of livin at the mRNA and protein level. Data was statistically analyzed using SPSS 11.5 soft ware. Two samples and multiple samples compares were analyzed with x~2 test. The difference of two groups compare were analyzed with t-test.Result1. The results of RT-PCR show that the expression ratio of livin mRNA in 30 osteosarcoma tissues is 63.3%, while is none in normal tissues. There is significant difference between this two group (P<0.01).2. The differences of livin mRNA expression among different genders, ages, cancer tissue states and Enneking states have no statistical significance.3. The results of Western Blot show that the expression of livin protein is positive in livin mRNA positively expressed osteosarcoma tissues, while is positively expressed in no normal tissues, and the expression of livin are simultaneity, which is identical to the results of RT-PCR.Conclusion1. Livin, an inhibitor of apoptosis, has some relationship with the formation and development of osteosarcoma by inhibiting the apoptosis of cells.2. The high expression of livin in osteosarcoma tissue may act as a molecular marker, which provides a new way for the diagnosis and therapy of osteosarcoma.