ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Migration, hyperproliferation, differentiation of basal keratinocytes and accumulation of keratin debris are the major pathogenic reactions in middle ear cholesteatoma. p53 is a multi-functional protein that acts as a negative regulator of cellular proliferation. This is known to increase in cholesteatoma, which is related to the apoptotic pathway. However, it is still not proven whether overexpression of p53 is associated with the increase in mRNA or modifications at the protein level. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Twenty-seven human cholesteatoma and 20 retroauricular skins were obtained. We tried to detect the overexpression of p53 using immunohistochemical staining, and conducted semi-quantitative analysis of mRNA level using relative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULTS: There was a difference in the number of p53 stained cells between cholesteatoma and normal skin. However, we could not find any significant differences in the p53 mRNA expression between them. CONCLUSION: We could confirm the overexpression of p53 in human cholesteatoma, which does not seem to be related with transcriptional up-regulation.