Progressive loss of E-cadherin immunoexpression during cervical carcinogenesis

• Autor(a) principal: Cavalcante,José Roosevelt
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Sampaio,João Paulo Aguiar, Maia Filho,João Tarcísio Alves, Vieira,Renato Braga, Eleutério Júnior,José, Lima Júnior,Roberto César Pereira, Ribeiro,Ronaldo Albuquerque, Almeida,Paulo Roberto Carvalho
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Acta Cirúrgica Brasileira (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-86502014001000667
• topic: Cadherins; Immunohistochemistry; Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia; Neoplasms squamous cell; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

PURPOSE: To investigate E-cadherin immunoexpression during cervical carcinogenesis. METHODS: We assessed the immunohistochemical expression of E-cadherin in squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL - 52 cases), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the uterine cervix (23 cases) and also in eight cases of cervicitis. RESULTS: The results show very different E-cadherin membrane expression levels when cervicitis (88%), SILs (73%) and SCC (17%) were compared. In SILs, higher E-cadherin loss was seen in less differentiated cells in the basal third of the epithelium. This study suggests that the absence of E-cadherin expression in the membrane is a molecular event that is observed more often in SCC of the uterine cervix than in SILs or cervicitis. CONCLUSIONS: E-cadherin is an essential molecule during the process of cervical carcinogenesis and in this context exhibits a different expression pattern according to the epithelial thickness layer.