Vasculogenic mimicry in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and its clinicopathological significance / 生物医学工程学杂志

ABSTRACT

The present paper aims to investigate whether or not vasculogenic mimicry (VM) exists in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), and to elucidate its relationship to microvessel density (MVD), galectin-3 (Gal-3) expression, and clinicopathological factors of patients with LSCC. VM, score of MVD and expression of Gal-3 protein were detected by immunohistochemistry and histochemistry in 83 specimens of LSCC tissue and 20 specimens of normal laryngeal tissue. The positive rate of VM in normal laryngeal tissues was 0%, and was 33.7% in LSCC tissues. There was a significant difference between the two groups (P<0. 01). VM or MVD was significantly related to differentiation, pTNM stages and lymph node metastasis of LSCC (P<0.05), but not to age, gender and tumor site (P>0. 05). And there was a positive correlation between every two of VM, score of MVD, and Gal-3 protein (P< 0. 05). The results suggest that expression of Gal-3 protein may be related to the initiation, angiogenesis and VM formation in LSCC; And VM, angiogenesis and Gal-3 protein may be involved in the development, invasion and metastasis of LSCC.