Abstract
BackgroundAs an acute-phase protein, serum amyloid A (SAA) is expressed primarily in the liver. However, its expression in extrahepatic tissues, especially in tumor tissues, was also demonstrated recently. In our study, we investigated the expression of SAA in uterine cervical carcinomas, and our results suggested its potential as a serum biomarker.MethodsQuantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry (IHC) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to evaluate the SAA gene and protein expression levels in the tissues and sera of patients with non-neoplastic lesions (NNLs), cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical carcinoma (CC).ResultsCompared with NNLs, the SAA gene (SAA1 and SAA4) expression levels were significantly higher in uterine CC (mean copy numbers: 138.7 vs. 5.01, P < 0.000; and 1.8 vs. 0.079, P = 0.001, respectively) by real-time PCR. IHC revealed cytoplasmic SAA protein staining in tissues from adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. The median serum concentrations (μg/ml) of SAA were 6.02 in patients with NNLs and 10.98 in patients with CIN (P = 0.31). In contrast, the median serum SAA concentration was 23.7 μg/ml in uterine CC patients, which was significantly higher than the SAA concentrations of the NNL group (P = 0.002) and the CIN group (P = 0.024).ConclusionsOur data suggested that SAA might be a uterine CC cell product. High SAA concentrations in the serum of CC patients may have a role in monitoring disease occurrence and could have therapeutic applications.Virtual slidesThe virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1433263219102962.
Highlights
Each year, more than 530,000 women develop cervical carcinoma (CC), and 270,000 die from this disease globally [1], which makes CC the third most common and the fifth most lethal cancer worldwide
Frozen biopsies were assessed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-RT-Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)) for serum amyloid A (SAA) expression and were derived from primary specimens staged according to the Federation International of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) surgical staging system, including 21 CC and 10 non-neoplastic lesion (NNL) cervical control samples obtained from hysterectomy specimens from women of similar ages [respective mean ages of 47.5 ± 3.1 (SD) and 42.7 ± 3.2 (SD) years old, respective ranges of 37–64 and 31–64 years old]
SAA expression in snap-frozen cervical carcinoma tissues by quantitative real-time PCR The expression of SAA1 was remarkably up-regulated in CC tissues compared with NNL cervical tissues
Summary
More than 530,000 women develop cervical carcinoma (CC), and 270,000 die from this disease globally [1], which makes CC the third most common and the fifth most lethal cancer worldwide. Based on both clinical and histopathological variables, uterine cervical diseases are categorized into three groups: non neoplastic, intraepithelial neoplasia and carcinoma. NFκB is a transcriptional factor for many functionally heterogeneous genes, notably the cytokine genes and anti-apoptotic genes The activation of these genes could suppress apoptosis [25]. As an acute-phase protein, serum amyloid A (SAA) is expressed primarily in the liver. We investigated the expression of SAA in uterine cervical carcinomas, and our results suggested its potential as a serum biomarker
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