[Expression and clinical significance of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and protein kinase B in cervical carcinoma].

Background & Objective: Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase /protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) signaling pathway is involved in a variety of important cellular functions, including genesis and progression of neoplasms. However, its role in cervical cancer is unclear. This study was to detect the expression of PI3K and Akt proteins in different cervical lesions, and to investigate the correlation of PI3K/Akt signal transduction pathway to biological behaviors of cervical carcinoma.

Methods: The expression of PI3K and Akt in 76 specimens of cervical carcinoma,21 specimens of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and 10 specimens of normal cervical epithelium were detected by SP immunohistochemistry. Their correlations to clinicopathologic features of cervical carcinoma were analyzed.

Results: The positive rates of PI3K and Akt were significantly lower in normal cervical epithelium and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia than in cervical carcinoma (0.0% and 42.9% vs. 69.7%, P<0.01;10.0% and 52.4% vs. 75.0%,P<0.01). The expression of PI3K and Akt proteins were correlated to clinical stage, pathologic grade and lymph node metastasis(P<0.01), but not to age, the size of primary focus, and histological type(P>0.05).The expression of PI3K protein was positively correlated to the expression of Akt protein(r=0.425,P<0.01).

Conclusion: High expression of PI3K and Akt are involved in proliferation, malignant transformation, invasion and metastasis of cervical carcinoma, both of which may play important roles in the occurrence and development of human cervical carcinoma.