The relationship of CCR7 and EMT in thyroid goiter and thyroid papillary carcinoma

Objective To explore the relationship of chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) in thyroid goiter and thyroid papillary carcinoma.Methods CCR7,N-cadherin and MMP9 were detected by immunohistochemical technique in 50 cases of thyroid goiter tissues and 50 cases of thyroid papillary carcinoma tissues.The correlation between clinical pathological data and CCR7 expression were retrospectively analyzed.Results CCR7 and N-cadherin mainly located in nodular follicular epithelium (83.7％,90.7％) in thyroid goiter and correlated with each other statistically(P ＜0.01),the expression of CCR7 and N-cadherin were low in the follicular epithelium of storage period (2.0％,8.2％) and the nodular fibrous tissues (6.7％,31.1％) of thyroid goiter.The expression rate of CCR7,N-cadherin and MMP9 in thyroid papillary carcinoma tissues with lymph node metastasis was 87.1％,90.3％,96.8％ respectively,while the expression rate of CCR7,N-cadherin and MMP9 in thyroid papillary carcinoma tissues without lymph node metastasis was 42.1％,57.9％,63.2％ respectively.CCR7,MMP9 and N-cadherin were significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (P ＜ 0.01).CCR7 was positively correlated with N-cadherin,MMP9 (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions CCR7 is associated with EMT indicators (MMP9 and N-cadherin) in thyroid goiter and thyroid papillary carcinoma.CCR7 might play a role in the genesis of EMT in the follicle epithelium. Key words: Thyroid neoplasms ;  Receptors, CCR7 ;  Cadherins;  Matrix metalloproteinase 9 ;  Epithelial mesenchymal transition