The expression of survivin in human gastric carcinoma and precancerous lesions.

Objective To investigate the expressions of survivin in gastric carcinomas and precancerous lesions. Methods Survivin mRNA expression was quantitatively determined by RT-PCR, and the protein contents were quantitatively determined by ELISA in 46 specimens of gastric carcinomas and 46 specimens of normal gastric tissues. Survivin protein expressions were also examined immunohistochemically in 46 specimens of gastric carcinoma tissues and 114 specimens of gastritis and precancerous lesion tissues. Results Survivin mRNA was expressed in 32.6% of gastric carcinomas (15/46), while it was expressed in 10.8% of neighboring normal tissues (P0.05). The survivin protein contents in gastric carcinoma were significantly higher than those in normal tissue(P0.05). There were no significant differences in survivin protein expression among superficial gastritis, atrophic gastritis, and intestinal metaplasia, but significant differences were detected among superficial gastritis, atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, gastric dysplasia, gastric carcinoma (P0.05). The survivin mRNA expression, protein expression and the protein contents were not associated to gender of patient, the size, depth, location, gross type, differentiation, vein invasion, lymph nodes metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM staging of tumor (all P0.05). Conclusion These data suggest that survivin may be involved in the inhibition of apoptosis in gastric carcinomas, and may be relevant to the genesis of gastric carcinoma, but irrelevant to the development and invasion of tumors.