Expression of a novel apoptosis inhibitor-survivin in colorectal carcinoma

Abstract

AIM: To investigate the role of survivin expression in the pathogenesis of colorectal carcinoma. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry S-P method and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) were used to detect the expression of survivin and apoptotic cell in situ in colorectal cancerous tissues, para-cancerous tissues and normal tissues of 48 cases of colorectal carcinoma. RESULTS: The survivin positive unit (PU) was higher in cancerous tissues (38.76+/-5.14) than in para-cancerous (25.17+/-7.26) or normal tissues (0.57+/-0.03) (P<0.05). The apoptosis index (AI) of para-cancerous tissues was (7.51+/-2.63%) higher than cancerous tissues (4.65+/-1.76%). The expression of survivin was associated with pathological grade, lymph node metastasis and Dukes stage of colorectal carcinoma. CONCLUSION: Survivin expression may play an important role in carcinogenesis of colorectal carcinoma and may be associated with malignant biological behaviors of colorectal carcinoma.