ABSTRACT
Background and purpose:Unbalance of apoptosis regulation plays an important role in tumor initiation and progression.Survivin and caspase-3 all take part in the regulation of cell cycle and apoptosis.We investigated the role of survivin and caspase-3 in apoptosis of gastric carcinoma,as well as its relationship with the clinicopathologic features and the prognosis of gastric carcinoma by using tissue microarray.Methods:The gastric cancer tissue microarrays were composed of tissues from 100 cases of carcinoma of the stomach without a history of chemo-radiation therapy and 30 gastric tissues of control subject.The diameter of each specimen on tissue microarrays was 2.0 mm.Expressions of survivin,caspase-3 were investigated immunohistochemically on these tissue microarrays.Tumor cell apoptosis index was also examined by TUNEL method.Of the 100 cases,47 cases were followed-up from 14 months to 13 years,in which the prognosis was analyzed.Results:Two paraffin-embedded gastric carcinoma tissue microarrays were successfully constructed,including 114 and 116 tissue spots,respectively.Immunohistochemical analysis showed that survivin expression was positive in 78 cases(78%) in this series.In contrast,no expression of survivin in control tissues was detected(P