Effects of Survivin expression on cell proliferation,apoptosis and related clinicopathological features in hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective To analyze the relationship between Survivin protein expression and cell proliferation as well as apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),and evaluate their clinicopathological significance.Methods The expression of Survivin and Ki-67 protein were examed using immunohistochemical method,and cell apoptosis was examed by TUNEL method in HCC tissues of 44 patients,para-cancerous tissues of 25 patients with HCC,and 9 cases of normal liver.Cell proliferation index(PI) and apoptosis index(AI) were calculated subsequently.Results The positive rate of Survivin protein expression was 68.18% in HCC group,while no Survivin expression was found in control groups(P0.01).The expression of Survivin protein in HCC was significantly associated with vein invasion(P0.05) and histological differentiation(P0.05),but was not correlated with the other clinicopathological features;In HCC tissues,the average PI and the average AI in Survivin expression positive group vs negative group were(35±16)% vs(16±10)%(P0.05),and(3.2±1.5)% vs(5.2±2.2)%(P0.05),respectively.Conclusion Overexpression of Survivin protein is closely related to the prognosis of patients with HCC.The expressions of Survivin might influence the biological property of liver carcinoma cell by promoting cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis.