Brief Article
Copyright ©2011 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 28, 2011; 17(32): 3745-3751
Published online Aug 28, 2011. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v17.i32.3745
Overexpression of TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Ilyar Sheyhidin, Gulnaz Nabi, Ayshamgul Hasim, Rui-Ping Zhang, Julaiti Ainiwaer, Hong Ma, Hua Wang
Ilyar Sheyhidin, Julaiti Ainiwaer, Department of Thoracic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital, Medical University of Xinjiang, 830054 Urumqi, Xinjiang, China
Gulnaz Nabi, Department of Rehabilitative of the First Affiliated Hospital, Medical University of Xinjiang, 830054 Urumqi, Xinjiang, China
Ayshamgul Hasim, Rui-Ping Zhang, Hong Ma, Hua Wang, Department of Pathology, College of Basic Medicine, Medical University of Xinjiang, 830011 Urumqi, Xinjiang, China
Author contributions: Sheyhidin I and Hasim A contributed equally to this work; Sheyhidin I and Hasim A designed the research; Nabi G, Zhang RP, and Ma H performed the experiments; Ainiwaer J analyzed the data; Wang H collected the human material; and Hasim A wrote the manuscript.
Supported by Doctoral Program of Higher Specialized Research Fund project (20106517110003)
Correspondence to: Ayshamgul Hasim, PhD, Department of Pathology, College of Basic Medicine, Medical University of Xinjiang, Xinyi Road 393, 830011 Urumqi, Xinjiang, China. ayshamgul75@sina.com
Telephone: +86-0991-4361012 Fax: +86-0991-4327997
Received: February 20, 2011
Revised: April 29, 2011
Accepted: May 6, 2011
Published online: August 28, 2011
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR) 3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

METHODS: Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry were used to analyze the expression of TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 mRNA and protein in samples from 87 esophageal cancer patients consisting of both tumor and normal tissue.

RESULTS: A significant increase in TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 mRNA levels was detected in ESCC samples. Tumors exhibited high TLR protein expression, (70.1%, 72.4%, 66.7% and 78.2% for TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9, respectively, P < 0.05). Nevertheless, a significant percentage of tumors also exhibited TLR4 expression in mononuclear inflammatory cells (48.3%) and TLR9 expression in fibroblast-like cells (60.9%). Tumors with high TLR3 expression in tumor cells or high TLR4 expression in mononuclear inflammatory cells were significantly associated with a higher probability of lymph node metastasis and increased depth of invasion. However, tumors with high TLR9 expression in fibroblast-like cells were associated with low probabilities of invasion and metastasis. There was no significant variation between the expression of TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 among different ethnic groups.

CONCLUSION: TLR3, TLR4, TLR7 and TLR9 expression appears important to the biological pathogenesis of ESCC. TLRs may represent therapeutic targets for ESCC.

Keywords: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, Invasion, Metastasis, Prognosis, Toll-like receptor