Deparment of Surgery, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2012 Apr;269(4):1183-8. doi: 10.1007/s00405-011-1892-4. Epub 2011 Dec 25.
Abnormal Wnt signaling and impaired cell-cell adhesion due to abnormal E-cadherin and β-catenin function have been implicated in many cancers, but have not been fully explored in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. In this study, β-catenin cellular location and E-cadherin expression levels were analyzed in 16 laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas (LSCCs) (9 glottic and 7 supraglottic) and 11 samples of non-tumoral inflammatory larynx tissue, using immunohistochemical methods. All non-tumoral tissues showed equally strong membranous expression of β-catenin, while cytoplasmic expression was found in only 3 of the 11 samples. By contrast, whereas 8/9 glottic LSCCs exhibited only membranous expression of β-catenin, 6/7 supraglottic LSCCs displayed both membranous and cytoplasmic expression (p = 0.003). Strong E-cadherin staining was observed in 9/11 non-tumoral tissues and 7/9 glottic LSCCs, whereas 4/7 supraglottic LSCCs exhibited weak expression. Reduced membrane expression of E-cadherin and cytoplasmic retention of β-catenin in supraglottic LSCC seems to be related with more aggressive biological behavior which has been described in clinical studies. Further research is required to clarify the involvement of β-catenin in the mechanism associated with malignant transformation in laryngeal tissues.
异常的 Wnt 信号和细胞-细胞黏附的损伤，是由于 E-钙黏蛋白和β-连环蛋白功能的异常导致的，这已被牵涉到许多癌症中，但在喉鳞状细胞癌中并未得到充分的研究。在这项研究中，我们使用免疫组织化学方法，分析了 16 例喉鳞状细胞癌（LSCC）（9 例声门型和 7 例声门上型）和 11 例非肿瘤性炎症喉组织中β-连环蛋白的细胞定位和 E-钙黏蛋白的表达水平。所有非肿瘤组织均显示β-连环蛋白具有同等强烈的膜表达，而仅在 11 个样本中的 3 个中发现细胞质表达。相比之下，虽然 8/9 例声门型 LSCC 仅表现出β-连环蛋白的膜表达，但 6/7 例声门上型 LSCC 同时表现出膜和细胞质表达（p = 0.003）。在 9/11 例非肿瘤组织和 7/9 例声门型 LSCC 中观察到强的 E-钙黏蛋白染色，而 4/7 例声门上型 LSCC 则表现为弱表达。在声门上型 LSCC 中，E-钙黏蛋白的膜表达减少和β-连环蛋白的细胞质滞留似乎与更具侵袭性的生物学行为有关，这在临床研究中已经有描述。需要进一步的研究来阐明β-连环蛋白在与喉组织恶性转化相关的机制中的参与。
