Expression of antiapoptosis protein, survivin, correlated with the expression of bcl-2 and c-erbB2 in colorectal carcinoma

Objective: To study the expression of survivin, an inhibitor of apoptosis protein, in colorectal carcinomas and its relationship with the expression of bcl-2 and c-erbB2.Methods: Using immunohistochemical staining method, we examined the expression of survivin, bcl-2 and c-erbB2 genes in 12 cases of normal colorectal mucosas and 57 cases of colorectal carcinomas.Results: No immunoreactivity of survivin was seen in normal colorectal mucosas. Expression of survivin was observed in the cytoplasm of colorectal carcinoma cells and survivin expressed in 36 of 57(63.2%) cases of colorectal carcinomas. Overexpression of survivin had no relation with age, gender, histological type, lymph node metastasis, and Dukes classification .But the expression of survivin significantly associated with bcl-2 expression(24/33, 72.7% versus 7/24, 29.2%, P0.01) and c-erbB2 expression(22/30, 73.7% versus 10/27, 37.0%, P0.01).Conclusion: These data indicated that survivin play an important role in the onset of colorectal carcinoma and suggested potential correlation between survivin and bcl-2, and between survivin and c-erbB2 as well.