P53 and PCNA is Positively Correlated with HPV Infection in Laryngeal Epitheliopapillomatous Lesions in Patiets with Different Ethnic Backgrounds in Xinjiang

Objective: To explore the correlation of human papillomavious (HPV) infection with expression of p53 andproliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in patients with different ethnicity in Xinjiang, China.
Methods: 166biopsy specimens from 83 laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas (LSCC), 63 laryngeal papillomas (LP), and 20laryngeal inflammatory polyps (LIP) were included in this study. HPV infection was determined by polymerasechain reaction (PCR) using specific types of HPV primers. Expression of p53 and PCNA was assessed usingimmunohistostaining.
Results: The frequency of HPV 6/11 was higher in LP (33.3%) than in LSCC (9.6%) (P<0.0005), whereas the frequency of HPV 16/18 was higher in LSCC (37.3 %) than in LP (6.3%) (P < 0.0005).Patients of the Han ethnic group with LSCC had a higher infection rate with HPV 6/11 or HPV 6/11 and HPV16/18 coinfection than those of Uygur and Kazak ethnicity (P <0.05). Overexpression of p53 and PCNA were higherin LSCC (62.7%, 57.8%) than in LP (38%, 33.3%) (P <0.005, and P <0.005, respectively). That of p53 was notassociated with lymph-node metastases and clinical stages, but overexpression of PCNA closely correlated withclinical stage.
Conclusions: These results strongly implicate HPV6/11 infection in the carcinogenesis of LSCC andLP, respectively. There was a higher coincidence of increased malignancy of laryngeal tumors with overexpressionof p53 and PCNA. Overexpression of p53 may serve as an early risk marker for malignant transformation inHPV infected cells while the overexpression of PCNA may serve as a late marker for progression of LSCC.