Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the expression of the tight junction protein occludin (encoded by OCLN gene) in human cervical cancer and its association with clinical features of patients.
Materials and methods: Sixty-one patients with cervical cancer were included in this study from June 30, 2015 to April 30, 2017. Immuno-histochemical assay was applied to examine the expression of occludin protein in 61 cervical cancer tissues and matched adjacent cancer normal tissues. The association of occludin protein expression with clinical pathology characteristics was analyzed.
Results: Occludin protein was mainly expressed in cell membranes and cytoplasm of both the cervical cancer cell and the normal cells. The protein was manifested with brownish-yellow granules. In cervical cancer tissues, the positive rate of occludin protein was 77.05% (47/61), whereas, in adjacent normal tissues of the cancer, the positive rate was 96.72% (59/61). Therefore, the positive rate of occludin in cervical cancer tissues was significantly lower than that of the adjacent cancer tissues (P < 0.05). Occludin protein expression level was not significantly correlated with the age (P > 0.05), tumor size (P > 0.05), International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics staging (P > 0.05), pathological grades (P > 0.05), and lymph node metastasis (P > 0.05) of the patients.
Conclusion: Occludin protein may contribute to the development of cervical cancer. However, it was not correlated with the clinical features.
Keywords: Cervical cancer; clinical characteristics; clinical significance; immunohistochemical assay; occludin.