Expression of placental growth factor in precancerous lesions and early invasive cervical squamous cancer and its significance

Objective:To study the expression of placental growth factor(PLGF) in precancerous lesions of cervical cancer and early invasive cervical squamous cancer and explore the relationship between the expression of PlGF and microvessel density(MVD),lymphatic vessels density(LVD) as well as its clinical significance.Methods:Immunohistochemical staining and RT-PCR were used to detect the protein and mRNA expressions of PLGF in 22 pre-cancerous lesions and 36 early invasive cervical squamous cancer specimens.CD34 and D2-40 related immunohistochemical methods were used to determine the MVD and LVD levels.The association of PLGF expression with MVD and LVD levels was analyzed.Results:The positive rate of PLGF protein was 22.73%(5/22) in pre-cancerous lesions and 58.33%(21/36) in early invasive cervical squamous cancer tissues.Its expression was significantly related with the clinical staging(P0.01).The mRNA expression of PLGF was consistant with its protein expression.There was a positive correlation between expression of PLGF and MVD and LVD(P0.01,P0.05).Conclusions:Both mRNA and protein expression levels of PLGF in precancerous lesions of cervical cancer were related to its clinical staging and tumorigenesis.PLGF has the potential to become a new target for neoadjuvent chemotherapy for cervical cancer.