Expression of Survivin and Caspase 3 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Peritumoral Tissue

This study was conducted to investigate the expression of survivin and caspase 3 in oral squamous cellcarcinoma and peritumoral tissue, and possible pathogenesis mechanisms. We used ELISA and western blottingto detect the protein expression levels of survivin and caspase 3 in tissue. In situ hybridization and real-timePCR were applied to assess mRNA expression levels. In this study, 13 tumor samples and 13 peritumoral tissuesamples were collected from oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and 10 normal tissue samples obtained frompatients without tumor. The result showed that the protein and mRNA expression of survivin in carcinomawas the highest among three types of tissue; following was that in peritumoral tissue. No difference in caspase3 zymogen between peritumoral tissue and normal tissue could be found, while it was evidently decreased incarcinoma tissue. Activated caspase 3 was detected in normal tissue but could not be identified in peritumoralor carcinoma tissue. Our results indicate that the expression of survivin is apparently elevated in tumoral andperitumoral tissue. Expression of activated caspase 3 was not detected in tumoral tissue and the expressionof caspase 3 zymogen was decreased in tumoral tissue. Our findings suggest that survivin may inhibit bothsynthesis and activation of caspase 3, hence inhibiting cell apoptosis and facililitating eventual development oforal squamous cell carcinoma.