Expression and significance of PTEN and MMP-7 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the significance and expression of phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome ten(PTEN) and matrix metalloproteinase-7(MMP-7) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods S-P immunohistochemistry was employed to detect the expression of PTEN and MMP-7 in 61 cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma,30 cases of pericarcinoma esophageal tissue and 60 cases of normal esophageal mucosa.Results The expression of PTEN and MMP-7 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma was closely correlated with tumor histological grade, depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis(P<0.01). The expression rates of PTEN in normal esophageal epithelium specimens, adjacent atypical hyperplasia epithelium and carcinoma reduced in turn which were 93.3%(56/60),73.3%(22/30),54.1%(33/61) respectively. And there were significant differences in different groups(P<0.01). The positive rate of MMP-7 protein expression in cancer tissue and mucosa adjacent to cancer were higher than that in normal mucosa tissue which were 42.6%(26/61),33.3%(10/30),18.3%(11/60) respectively. And there were significant differences in different groups(P<0.01). There was negative correlation between the expression of PTEN and MMP-7. Conclusions PTEN and MMP-7 play important roles in infiltration,metastasis and mucous membrane epidermis canceration process of esophageal carcinoma. PTEN and MMP-7 can become one of molecular indexs in the early diagnosis and prognostic judgement of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Key words: Matrix metalloproteinase-7 ; PTEN ; Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma ; Immunohistochemistry ;