The Expression Of Ezrin, AQP3 In Skin Squamous Cell Carcinoma

ObjectiveSkin squamous cell carcinoma is one of the most common skin cancer which is derived from adnexal keratinocytes or squamous cell. It is aggressive and prone to near or distant metastasis, especially transfur to vital organs, thereby endangering the life. The mechanism of occurrence of disease, invasion and metastasis is currently not very clear, so studying the mechanism of invasion and metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma is important to the prevention and treatment of the cancer.Ezrin protein is bridge linking protein between the membrane protein and actin-cytoskeleton protein. It has some functions, such as maintaining cell shape and cell movement, regulation of adhesion molecules connecting signal transduction and others. Present study found that it plays an important role in tumor differentiation, invasion and metastasis through connecting the adhesion molecules in the surface of tumor cells. AQPs is a kind of membrane integral protein which can fast transport water. It is an aquaglyceroporin which is located in skin. AQP3 participate in several patho-physiological functions, and its high expression is closely linked to cancer invasion and metastasis.To investigate the expression of Ezrin protein and AQP3 protein in squamous cell carcinoma and explore their significance with the tumorigenesis, development and the relationship with clinical path characteristic. To evaluate whether the expression of Ezrin protein and AQP3 is related to the malignancy of squamous cell carcinoma and whether their expressions are associated with progression of squamous cell carcinoma.Materials and methodsS-P immunohistochemistry technique was applied to detect the expression of Ezrin protein and AQP3 in 43 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, and 15 cases normal skin tissue samples acted as control group. Of the 43 cases of squamous cell carcinoma,16 cases were classified as highly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, 15 cases were classified as middle differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, and 12 cases were classified as poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Squamous cell carcinoma specimens served as the positive control. Substitution of PBS for the primary antibody served as a negative control. The relationships of the results with clinicopathological data were analyzed, and analysed the data with SPSS 13.0 system.ResultsThe positive expression rate in 43 cases of squamous cell carcinoma was 93%, and the positive expression rate in 15 cases of normal skin tissue was 6.67%. The positive of Ezrin protein expression had significant differences between squamous cell carcinoma and normal skin tissues (P<0.01). The expression of Ezrin protein is correlated with the differentiation of squamous cell carcinoma and the positive expression rate of Ezrin protein was increased in squamous cell carcinoma from highly differentiated to poorly differentiated with a statistically significant difference (P<0.01). Ezrin protein immunoreactivity was apparent in the cell staining or both cytoplasmic staining. The positive expression rate of AQP3 in squamous cell carcinoma and normal skin was 88.4% and 6.67% respectively with a statistically significant difference (P<0.01). The expression of AQP3 is correlated with the differentiation of squamous cell carcinoma. The positive expression rate of AQP3 was decreased in squamous cell carcinoma from highly differentiated to poorly differentiated with a statistically significant difference (P<0.01). The expression of Ezrin protein was positively correlated with that of AQP3 with a statistically significant difference (r=0.573, P<0.01)Conclusions1. Ezrin protein was up regulated in squamous cell carcinoma, and its expression level was negative correlated with the differentiation of squamous cell carcinoma.2. AQP3 was up regulated in squamous cell carcinoma, and its expression level was positive correlated with the differentiation of squamous cell carcinoma.3. The expression of Ezrin protein was positively correlated with that of AQP3 in squamous cell carcinoma, which shows they may have synergies in the incidence and development process of squamous cell carcinoma.