Expression and role of AQP1 in cervical squamous carcinoma and its precancerous lesions

ObjectiveTo investigate the expression of aquaporin 1 in cervical squamous carcinomas (CSC) and cervical precancerous lesions, and the relationship between the tumor clinicopathological parameters, prognosis and the expression of AQP1.MethodsImmunohistochemical method (EliVision) was used to detect the expression of AQP1 in samples from 106 patients [20 with normal cervical tissue, 30 with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (stage I and II) and 56 with CSC]. Survival analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meier method.ResultsAQP1 protein was expressed in vascular endothelia of all samples. It showed upregulation of AQP1 expression in CSC. There was a significant difference between CSC and normal cervical tissues (P<0.05). AQP1 was expressed in some tumor cells and unexpressed in normal squamous epithelial cells. And APQ1-expressing tumor cells were positively related to lymph node metastasis. Patients with APQ1-expressing tumor cells had the lower survival rate than the ones without.ConclusionAbnormal expression of AQP1 plays an important role in the development of CSC. Positive expression of AQP1 in tumor cells maybe enhances tumor metastasis and could be used as a marker for tumor prognosis.