The objective of this study was to investigate the roles of Bcl-xl and Bcl-xs in the development and progression of endometrial carcinoma.Įxperimental group included endometrial tissues from 50 patients, who underwent surgery or hysteroscopy for suspected endometrial lesions in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology department in Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University from December 2005 to October 2006, including 6 cases of simple hyperplasia, 12 cases of atypical hyperplasia and 32 cases of endometrial carcinoma.
However, few report has shown the levels of Bcl-xl and Bcl-xs in endometrial carcinoma tissue. has been reported in many domestic and foreign literatures.
Bcl-xl and Bcl-xs are encoded by Bcl-x gene, where the abnormal expression of such in various tumors including breast cancer, multiple myeloma and thyroid cancer etc. There are at least 15 members in the Bcl-2 family, among which Bcl-2 and Bcl-x are major genes involving in the development and progression of tumors and therefore attract much attentions. As a regulatory point for caspase activation and mitochondria function, Bcl-2 gene family functions as a common pathway for transmission of cell apoptosis signals to regulate cell survival and apoptosis. Recent studies find that Bcl-2 family is a major tumor suppressor gene family in association to the pathogenesis of endometrial carcinoma. However, the molecular biological mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of endometrial carcinoma remain unclear. The incidence of endometrial carcinoma continued to increase annually and it has replaced cervical cancer in some countries as the most common malignant tumors of female genital tract.
The abnormal expressions of Bcl-xs and Bcl-xl were one of the molecular mechanisms for the pathogenesis of endometrial carcinoma, and altered ratio between these two might involve in the onset of endometrial carcinoma.Įndometrial carcinoma is one of the common malignant tumors of female genital tract. The expressions of Bcl-xl and Bcl-xs were negatively correlated with each other ( r = -0.76). Furthermore, level of Bcl-xs mRNA was correlated with the clinical staging and lymph node metastasis of the endometrial carcinoma ( P < 0.05). In addition, Bcl-xs mRNA level in simple hyperplasia endometrial tissue had no significant difference compared to that in normal endometrial tissue ( P = 0.12), while the levels of atypical hyperplasia and endometrial carcinoma endometrial tissues were significantly different from the normal endometrial tissue (both P = 0.00). On contrary, Bcl-xl expression in endometrial carcinoma tissue was significantly higher than the normal endometrial tissue ( P = 0.00), which was correlated with the pathological grading of endometrial carcinoma (F = 5.33, P = 0.02). The Bcl-xl expression levels of simple and atypical hyperplasia endometrial tissues were not significantly different from that of normal endometrial tissue (both P > 0.05). RT-PCR and Western-blot assay were applied to detect the expressions of Bcl-xl and Bcl-xs in endometrial tissues of various histomorphologic types. To explore the roles of Bcl-xl and Bcl-xs in the development and progression of endometrial carcinoma, and to analyze the correlation between Bcl-xl and Bcl-xs.