Background: The pathogenesis of nasal polyps still is not clear. This disease is believed to be inflammation related. Previous research has indicated that apoptosis in inflammatory cells is an important factor in the resolution of inflammation. Survivin is regarded as a novel member of the group of inhibitors of apoptosis proteins. It is overexpressed in a number of tumor types. The objective of this study was to investigate the expression of the survivin gene in human nasal polyps.
Methods: We investigated the expression of survivin in nasal polyps of adult patients with chronic rhinosinusitis. Specimens of nasal polyps were harvested during endonasal sinus surgery (n=22), and the normal mucosa surrounding the nasal polyp tissues or inferior turbinate tissues served as control (n=7). Immunohistochemical staining, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and Western blotting were performed for detecting the expression of survivin in the nasal polyps.
Results: This study has clearly shown that immunoreactivity of survivin significantly increased in the nasal polyp compared with nasal mucosa specimens surrounding nasal polyps (p<0.001). The higher expression of survivin Western blotting and RT-PCR also was observed in the nasal polyp but not in normal nasal mucosa.
Conclusion: With a markedly increased expression of survivin in nasal polyps at both the mRNA and the protein levels, we believe the elevated expression of survivin might play an important role of development in nasal polyps.