Detection of apoptosis regulation Survivin and Caspase-3 genes in neuroblastoma

Objective To study the expression and its clinical significance of Survivin and Caspase-3 in neuroblastoma. Methods Forty-five paraffin embedded specimens including neuroblastoma (26) and ganglion neuroblastoma (9) were studied, and ten normal adrenal tissues served as control. According to clinical stage and histological classification, 26 cases of neuroblastoma were divided into several subgroups. Apoptosis was examined by TdT-mediated dUTP biotin nick end labelling (TUNEL). The expression of Survivin and Caspase-3 genes was shown by immunohistochemical staining. DNA of these genes was demon- strated by in situ hybrization. Results Expression of Survivin in neuroblastoma was higher than that of ganglioneuroblastoma and normal adrenal tissues (P0.01). Moreover, the expression of Survivin was re- lated to the age, clinical stage and histological classification of patients (P0.001), and expression of Cas- pase-3 and apoptosis index (AI) was correlated with the tissue type, clinical stage and histological classifica- tion of neuroblastoma (P0.05). The negative relationship was noted between the expression of Survivin and Caspase-3 (r = - 0.702, P = 0.005), and the negative relationship was demonstrated between Sur- vivin and AI(r = - 0.696, p = 0.001) in neuroblastoma. However, the positive relationship was found be- tween Caspase-3 and AI in neuroblastoma, ganglioneuroblastoma and normal adrenal tissues (r = 0.888、 0.989、0. 958, P value = 0.000). Conclusion Expression of Survivin and Caspase-3 can be considered as a useful diagnostic and prognostic markers for neuroblastoma.