Expression of survivin is correlated with cancer cell apoptosis and is involved in the development of human pancreatic duct cell tumors

BACKGROUND, Survivin is a new member of the inhibitor of apoptosis family o f antiapoptotic proteins. This protein was expressed selectively in all the most common human carcinomas but not in normal adult tissues. To our knowl edge, the relation between survivin expression and apoptosis or tumorigenes is has not yet been studied in pancreatic neoplasms. METHODS. The authors investigated the expression of survivin in 4 pancreati c carcinoma cell lines and 56 human pancreatic tissues (5 cases of normal, 12 cases of chronic pancreatitis [CP], 26 cases of pancreatic duct cell ade nocarcinoma [PDC], 16 lesions of 13 intraductal papillary-mucinous tumor [I PMT] by immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting, and reverse transcription-pol ymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to examine the association of its expressio n with tumor apoptosis and/or tumorigenesis. RESULTS. Survivin expression was found in the tumor cells but nor in the no nneoplastic pancreatic tissues (normal and CP tissues). Survivin expression was observed in 20 of 26 cases of PDC (76.9%) and in 9 of 16 IPMT lesions that ranged from adenoma to invasive (56.3%) by immunohistochemistry. Survi vin was more frequently expressed in malignant tumors than in benign tumors (P = 0.0089). In PDC, high levels of survivin expression were associated s ignificantly with a reduction in the apoptotic index of the tumor cells (0. 445% +/- 0.150% vs. 0.961% +/- 0.378%; P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS, These data suggest that the expression of survivin may be upre gulated during an early step of tumorigenesis and during the development of cancer by reducing the cancer cell apoptosis. (C) 2001 American Cancer Soc iety.