Expression of serum amyloid A in uterine cervical cancer.
BACKGROUND
As an acute-phase protein, serum amyloid A (SAA) is expressed primarily in the liver. However, its expression in extrahepatic tissues, especially in tumor tissues, was also demonstrated recently. In our study, we investigated the expression of SAA in uterine cervical carcinomas, and our results suggested its potential as a serum biomarker.


METHODS
Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry (IHC) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to evaluate the SAA gene and protein expression levels in the tissues and sera of patients with non-neoplastic lesions (NNLs), cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical carcinoma (CC).


RESULTS
Compared with NNLs, the SAA gene (SAA1 and SAA4) expression levels were significantly higher in uterine CC (mean copy numbers: 138.7 vs. 5.01, P < 0.000; and 1.8 vs. 0.079, P = 0.001, respectively) by real-time PCR. IHC revealed cytoplasmic SAA protein staining in tissues from adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. The median serum concentrations (μg/ml) of SAA were 6.02 in patients with NNLs and 10.98 in patients with CIN (P = 0.31). In contrast, the median serum SAA concentration was 23.7 μg/ml in uterine CC patients, which was significantly higher than the SAA concentrations of the NNL group (P = 0.002) and the CIN group (P = 0.024).


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggested that SAA might be a uterine CC cell product. High SAA concentrations in the serum of CC patients may have a role in monitoring disease occurrence and could have therapeutic applications.
The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1433263219102962.
Yanjie
Y
Ren
He
H
Wang
Donghao
D
Lu
Xiaoyan
X
Xie
Xinlian
X
Chen
Jing
J
Peng
Qian
Q
Hu
Department of Obstetrics&Gynecology, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, No, 20, 3rd Section of Ren Min Nan Road, Chengdu 610041, China. gang-shi@163.com.
Gang
G
Shi
Shanling
S
Liu
D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D000685:Serum Amyloid A Protein / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D000685:Serum Amyloid A Protein