[Expressions and clinical significance of urokinase-type plasminogen activator and its receptor in vulvar tissues].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the expressions of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and its receptor (uPAR) in vulvar tissues and elucidate the patterns.


METHODS
Thirty cases of vulvar neoplasms, 30 vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) and 30 cases of normal epithelial tissue were harvested. And the expressions of uPA and uPAR in paraffin-embedded tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry. And the differential expressions of various vulvar tissues were observed. And the differences were compared in clinical stage and lymph node metastasis.


RESULTS
(1) The expressions of uPA and uPAR in normal tissues (0.422 ± 0.022, 0.431 ± 0.027), vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) (0.462 ± 0.018, 0.467 ± 0.015) and vulvar neoplasms (0.508 ± 0.020, 0.510 ± 0.020) were significantly different (P < 0.01). (2) The expressions of uPA and uPAR in vulvar tissue significantly increased with a rising stage-level (P < 0.05). (3) Compared with those without lymph node metastasis, the patients with lymph node metastasis had significantly higher expressions of uPA and uPAR in vulvar tissue (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Thus uPA and uPAR play an important role in the development process of vulvar neoplasms with an elevated expression in normal vulvar tissue, VIN and vulvar neoplasms. The invasiveness and prognosis of vulvar neoplasms may be evaluated through detecting the tissue expressions of uPA and uPAR.
No. 3 Hospital, Hebei Medical College, Shijiazhuang 050051, China. Email: ying1069@126.com.
Ying
Y
Tian
Xian-Jun
XJ
Zhang
Gui-Fen
GF
Li
Wei
W
Wang
D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000378:metabolism; D055293:Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator / Q000378:metabolism
D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D055293:Receptors, Urokinase Plasminogen Activator; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator