ABSTRACT
PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION: To evaluate the distribution of GTPases RhoA, RhoB, and Cdc42 in cervical intraepithelial neoplasias (CIN) and invasive neoplasias of the uterine cervix. MATERIALS AND METHODS: samples of neoplastic lesions of the uterine cervix of 44 patients were classified in: CIN I (n = 10), CIN II (n = 10), CIN III (n = 09), and invasive carcinoma (n = 15). Antibodies anti-RhoA, anti-RhoB, and anti-Cdc42 were used and staining was classified as: negative, mild, moderate, and intense positive. RESULTS: When compared with dysplastic cells, superficial cells showed: higher expression of RhoB in CIN I (p = 0.0018), and lower expression of Cdc42 in CIN I (p = 0.0225). The authors observed higher expression of RhoA (p = 0.0002) and RhoB (p = 0.0046) in CIN dysplastic cells when compared with invasive carcinoma cells. CONCLUSIONS: GTPases Rho may be involved with the regulation of biological processes, important to the progression of cervical neoplasias. Probably, RhoA is important for maintenance of cell differentiation and RhoB protects cells from malignant cervical neoplasia.
Subject(s)
Uterine Cervical Dysplasia/pathology , Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/pathology , rhoA GTP-Binding Protein/physiology , rhoB GTP-Binding Protein/physiology , Adult , Female , Humans , Immunohistochemistry , Middle Aged , Neoplasm Invasiveness , Neoplasm Staging , Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/enzymology , cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein/analysis , rhoA GTP-Binding Protein/analysis , rhoB GTP-Binding Protein/analysis , Uterine Cervical Dysplasia/enzymologyABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Data from the literature demonstrate that the local and systemic immune responses seem to play an important role in the progression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Our aim was to investigate whether recurrences among CIN III patients might be related to the presence of local lymphocytes, macrophage and enzyme iNOS. METHODS: We analyzed 35 patients with CIN III who underwent conization and followed up for a minimum of 4 years. Using immunohistochemistry, the presence of T lymphocytes (CD3, CD8 and CD45RO), B lymphocytes (CD20), macrophages (CD68) and the expression of the enzyme iNOS were investigated. The quantity of marked cells is graded as: 0, absence of cells; 1, rare cells; 2, moderate number of cells; 3, many cells. For statistical purposes, we took the scores 0 and 1 to indicate weak marking and the scores 2 and 3 to indicate strong marking. RESULTS: We found strong positive expression of CD3-positive T lymphocytes among CIN III patients with recurrence following conization (100 vs. 50% without recurrence, p=0.02). We did not find any statistical differences in the expression of CD20, CD68, CD45RO, CD8 or iNOS. CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that strong positive findings of CD3 T lymphocytes were related to recurrence following conization due to CIN III.
