Expression profiling of G2/M phase regulatory proteins in normal, premalignant and malignant uterine cervix and their correlation with survival of patients

Background : Cell regulatory G2/M phase proteins are the key regulators of mitosis and have been reported with abnormal expressions in various malignancies. Aim : To determine the expressions of these proteins in neoplastic uterine cervix tissue. Materials and Methods : This study evaluates the G2/M phase regulatory protein expression of Cyclin B1, Aurora-B, Pololike kinase 1 (PLK1) and LIM kinase1 (LIMK1) in tissues of 25 normal (control), 16 dysplastic (dysplasia) and 34 neoplastic (cancer) patients of uterine cervix. The expressions of different proteins were obtained by using Western Blot technique. Statistical Analysis : One way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation, Kaplan-Meier and other tests are used for analysis. Results and Conclusion : The level of expression of LIMK1 in cervical cancer patients was found to be significantly higher (P < 0.01) than both the controls and dysplasia. The expression of Aurora B and PLK1 in cervical cancer patients was also found to be significantly higher ( P < 0.05) than controls but it did not differ with dysplasia. However, the expression of Cyclin B1 was similar among cervical cancer patients, dysplasia and controls ( P> 0.05). The expression of all the above proteins showed significant ( P < 0.01) and inverse relation with the survival of cancer patients. Among the selected candidate proteins, it was LIMK1 that showed the most positive correlation with the aggressiveness of the disease and negative correlation (r= -0.64; P < 0.01) with the survival of patients.