Expression of P16 in Human Middle Ear Cholesteatoma and Cancer

Objective Toanalyze the expression ofP16 in human middle ear cholesteatomas and cancer,to investigate the correlation between its expression and the ability of erosion of cholesteatoma,and to analyze the role of P16 in proliferation of cancer.Methods The specimens from the acquired middle ear cholesteatoma tissue of 30 cases and 21 external ear canal skin samples from patients and 17 external ear canal skin samples from healthy men and 15 cancer tissue samples from patients with cancer of the middle ear were taken intraoperatively.The expression of P16 was examined by immunohistochemical S-P method.Then we scanned it into a computer by an im- age scanner and quantified the gray of them using commercial software.Results The percent of positive expression of P16 in middle ear cholesteatoma was 46.7%.Their expression was different from the skins of the control group.But there was no correlation between the expression of P16 and the ability of erosion of middle ear cholesteatoma (R=-0.031,P=0.910).The expression of P16 in all epithelial layers of middle ear cholesteatoma were abundantly stained,especially in the basal and spinous layers.Only the basal layers were slightly stained in control group.The percent of positive expression of P16 in the cancer of the middle ear was 50%,There was significant difference between the cancer tissues and the cholesteatoma of middle ear.There wasn’t correlation between the expression with P16 and ability of erosion in the cancer of middle ear.The staining of positive cells of P16 in the cancer tissues of middle ear was darker than the skin of external auditory meatus from control group,and the density was higher.Conclusions The expression of P16 in middle ear cholesteatoma and cancer tissues was up- regulated.It shows that the abnormal expression of P16 lead the proliferation of cells to be out of control,and may play an important role in the process of middle ear cholesteatoma and cancer.