Expression of Toll-like receptor 4 in cervical cell lines and cervical lesions and its relation to HPV16 infection

Abstract

To explore the relation between human papillomavirus (HPV16) infection and expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in cervical cell lines and cervical lesion tissues and to investigate the effect of TLR4 on cervical cancer progression. Expression of HPV16 E6 mRNA was detected by RT-PCR. Western blot and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression of TLR4 in H8, SiHa, Caski cell lines and formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded cervical tissue specimens with cervicitis, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical squamous cell carcinama (CSCC). DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded cervical cancer tissues and HPV16 genes were detected. The differentiation expression of HPV16 E6 mRNA and TLR4 in SiHa and Caski was significantly higher than that of normal cervical cell H8 (P<0.05). The positive expression rates of TLR4 and HPV16 in chronic cervicitis, CIN, and cervical cancer were 32.0%, 59.4%, and 77.8% (P<0.01) and 8.0%, 48.4%, and 81.0% (P<0.01), respectively. Up-regulation of TLR4 was correlated with tumor differentiation (P<0.01), but not with FIGO stages or lymph node metastasis (P>0.05). The expression of TLR4 was significantly correlated with HPV16 infection in CIN and CSCC (r=0.303, P<0.05, r=0.633, P<0.05). High expression of TLR4 may play important roles in the development and progression of CIN and CSCC, and the expression of TLR4 can be up-regulated by HPV16 infection.