Study of the correlation among p53 expression, epidermal hyperplasia, dermal inflammation, p21 expression, and Ki-67 expression in actinic keratosis

Abstract

Background: Actinic keratosis is a proliferation of transformed neoplastic keratinocytes that are confined to the epidermis, and is induced by exposure to UV radiation in sunlight. The neoplastic transformation is primarily due to p53 gene mutation. Objective: Our purpose was to study the correlation among p53 expression, epidermal hyperplasia, dermal inflammation, Ki-67 expression, and p2l expression in the actinic keratosis. Methods: We reviewed the histopathologic slides of 21 cases of actinic keratosis. We performed immunoperoxidase staining using monoclonal antibody to p53 protein, Ki-67 antigen, p21 protein on the specimen. We stastically analyzed the correlation among p53 expression, epidermal hyperplasia, and dermal inflammation, Ki-67 expression, and p21 expression. Result: We found higher expression of p53 in the actinic keratosis with hyperplastic epidermis but this finding was not stastically siginificant (p=0.233). There was no correlation between the expression level of p53 and the severity of dermal inflammation (p=0.755). The expression level of p53 had the significant positive correlation with the expression level of Ki-67 (p=0.001). There was no correlation between the expression level of p53 and the expression level of p21 (p=0.116). Conclusion: We observed that p53 expression had a significant positive correlation to only Ki-67 expression. We suggested that further study would be needed on the correlation among p53 expression, epidermal hyperplasia, dermal inflammation, and p21 expression in actinic keratosis. (Korean J Dermatol 2004;42(5):551-558)