Expression Of B7-H1in Skin Tumor Tissues And Its Clinical Significance

Objective To investigate expression of costimulatory molecule B7-H1in malignantskin tumors, precancerous skin lesions and benign skin tumors, and explore its roles duringthe formation of skin tumors and its clinical significance．Methods Elivsion TM immunohistochemical staining was used to detect theexpression of B7-H1molecules in144cases with cutaneous malignant tumors, whichincluding51cases of squamous cell carcinoma,93non squamous cell carcinoma. Thecontrol group was consisted of10cases of actinic keratosis,10benign skin tumor(including8pigmented nevus,2seborrheic keratosis). The expression levels of B7-H1molecules in benign skin neoplasms, precancerous lesions and malignant tumors, weredetected and compared. The relationship between the expression of B7-H1molecule insquamous cell carcinoma and some parameters such as patient’s age, the site, size andhistological grades of tumors, were statistically analyzed.Results B7-H1molecule was mainly expressed in the cytoplasm and cell membraneof skin tumor cells. Diffuse brown granular staining was observed. The positive expressionwas observed in the tissues of squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, sebaceousgland carcinoma, syringocarcinoma, extramammary Paget’s disease and malignantmelanoma. The positive rates of B7-H1expression in the tissues of actinic keratosis,benign skin tumor and squamous cell carcinoma were10%,40%and84.78%, respectively.The expression level of B7-H1molecule in squamous cell carcinoma was significantlyhigher than that in actinic keratosis and skin benign tumor (P<0.05). The expression ofB7-H1molecule in skin squamous cell carcinoma tissues was not related to the patients’ages and sex. There was no statistical significance between this expression and the riskfactors of recurrence and metastasis (such as the tumor location, size and pathologicalgrade)(P>0.05).Conclusion Expression of B7-H1molecule in squamous cell carcinoma wassignificantly higher than that in precancerous lesions and benign skin tumor, suggestingthat B7-H1molecule might be involved in the occurrence and development of skin tumors.