Expression Analysis of BRUCE Protein in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Apoptosis is a form of cell death in response to diverse stressful physiological or pathologicalstimuluses. One of the most important gene families involved in apoptosis is inhibitors ofapoptosis (IAPs). As a member of IAPs, BRUCE can suppress apoptosis and promote celldivision. Since esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) as well as other cancers isimmortal, our aim in this study was to elucidate expression pattern of BRUCE protein inESCC and evaluate its correlation with different clinicopathological features of the patients.Fifty ESCC specimens were examined for BRUCE protein expression usingimmunohistochemistry. A defined scoring method was applied. Expression of BRUCEprotein was detected in 82% of tumors. There were significant correlations between BRUCEprotein expression and stage of tumor cell progression (P=0.019), and depth of tumorinvasion (P=0.005). Furthermore, association of BRUCE expression with location of tumorswas near to be significant (p=0.058). BRUCE protein has important roles in inhibition ofprogrammed cell death and its expression was reported in a variety of cancers. Itsoverexpression in ESCC in significant correlation with aggressive behavior of the diseasemay confirm the importance of BRUCE in ESCC progression and invasiveness. Therefore, itmay be considered as a new molecular marker for aggressive ESCC and may be a goodtherapeutic target to inhibit tumor cell progression and invasion.

کلیدواژه ها:

BRUCE ، IAP ، Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma ، Immunohistochemistry ، Immunocytochemistry ، Apoptosis