Relationships between CD44, hyaluronic acid expression and lymphatic metastasis and radiosensitivity of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

To study the sensible relationships between CD44, Hyaluronic acid (HA) expression and lymphatic metastasis and radiosensitivity of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and to explore and predict effective biological indicators for potential lymphatic metastasis and radiosensitivity. Immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR method have respectively tested the CD44 protein, levels of HA and mRNA expression in 50 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. CD44 protein has expressed in either nasopharyngeal carcinoma’s cell membrane or cytoplasm. The positive rate of protein expression in N(+) group was 72.0% and 36.0% for N(-) group. There was a statistical difference between two groups, P=0.027. Three months after radiotherapy, the positive rate was 61.1% in the metastatic lymph node fading group and 100% in the completely fading group. It had a difference, P<0.05. RT-PCR result showed that CD44 mRNA expression in the N(+) group was higher than that of N(-) group. Relative contents were 1.0584 ± 0.3958 and 0.4738 ± 0.3462, respectively. It had a statistical difference, P=0.000. The relative contents among incomplete radiotherapy fading group and complete radiotherapy fading group were 1.4282 ± 0.3116 and 0.9146 ± 0.3298, respectively in N(+) group. It had a statistical difference, P=0.002. The relative contents in cornification group and non-cornification group were 0.8365 ± 0.4706 and 0.5118 ± 0.3627, respectively. It also had a statistical difference, P=0.048. Cancer tissue’s HA and mRNA (RTPCR) expression levels in N(+) group were higher than that of N(0) group (Ρ<0.05). Cervical lymph nodes in the incomplete fading group were significantly more than that of complete fading group (all P<0.05). The results showed that HA and CD44mRNA expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma had significant differences between lymph node metastasis group or non-metastasis group, lymph node fading group or non-fading group. The relative contents of HA, CD44 mRNA and CD44 protein in the lymph node metastasis group were significantly higher than that of non-lymph node metastasis group. The relative contents of HA, CD44 mRNA and CD44 protein in the postradiotheray incomplete lymph node fading group were significantly higher that of postradiotheray complete lymph node fading group.