Expression of Survivin and Caspase-3 protein and their relationships with apoptosis in colorectal carcinoma

Objective To evaluate the expressions of Survivin and Caspase-3 in patients with colorectal carcinoma and their association with tumor cell apoptosis.Methods The TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labelling(TUNEL) and immunohistochemistry were used to study cell apoptosis and expression of Survivin and Caspase-3 in 68 cases of colorectal cancer tissues and 20 normal controls.Results Survivin was expressed in 36 of 68(52.9%) cases of colorectal carcinoma and was not expressed in normal tissues.The expression of Survivin was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and histological type(P0.01).Caspase-3 was expressed in 28 of 68(41.2%) cases in colorectal carcinoma tissues and in 16 of 20(80.0%) cases in normal tissues.The expression of Caspase-3 in colorectal carcinoma was correlated with the Dukes staging and the differentiation degree(P0.05). There was correlation between the expression of Survivin and Caspase-3(r=0.381,P0.05).The expression of Survivin was negatively correlated with apoptotic index(r=-0.458,P0.01),but the expression of Caspase-3 was positively correlated with apoptotic index(r=0.634,P0.01).Conclusion There is close correlation between the expression of Survivin,Caspase-3 protein and the cell apoptosis in colorectal carcinoma.The Survivin and Caspase-3 may participate in the mechanism of cell apoptosis and have important roles in the malignance of colorectal cancer.