MIEN OF RETINOBLASTOMA PROTEIN (pRb) IN GRADES OF CERVICAL LESION

The retinoblastoma protein (pRb); gene appellation (shortened or ) is a tumor suppressor protein that stands dysfunctional in numerous major malignancies. Cervical cancer is another utmost common cause of cancer-related death globally between women folk. This study was aimed at investigating the expression of retinoblastoma protein (pRb) in grades of
cervical lesion. Two hundred (200) cases of archived formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues of already diagnosed cervical lesions and cervical carcinoma tissue blocks were selected for this study. Sections of 3µ thickness were cut for immunohistochemical staining technique. The immunohistochemical staining was semi-quantitatively scored based on
percentage of cells that stained positive and the intensity of the staining. Photomicrograph was basically used for analyzing the expression, and comparative analysis of the data generated from the expression was statistically done. Frequency of data was calculated using Chi-square (x ). The expression of retinoblastoma protein (pRb) was found to be 95.3% in cervical
intraepithelial neoplasia grade I (CIN I) cases, 100% in CIN II cases, 85.4% in CIN III cases, and 60.8% in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cases. The expression of pRb in CIN I, II, and III as well as SCC significantly reduced as the CIN cases matured to malignancy (p<0.05) with CIN III been observed with the least expression of pRb among CIN cases. The downregulation of pRb observed in this study may indicate mutation of RB gene in cervical lesions and could be involved in cervical carcinogenesis.