p53 protein detection by the western blotting technique in normal and neoplastic specimens of human endometrium

The aim of the study was to investigate p53 protein expression by the Western blotting technique (estimated by integrated optical density - IOD) in normal (n = 13) and neoplastic (n = 40) human endometrial tissues as well as in a case of uterine carcinosarcoma and in a specimen of the botryoid sarcoma of the uterine cervix. p53 protein levels were correlated with patients' age as well as with conventionally used clinicopathological features of the endometrial neoplasm. A statistically significant difference was noted in p53 levels in the nuclear, but not in the cytoplasmatic, fraction between the normal endometria and endometrial cancer tissues (P < 0.0001). In the neoplastic endometria, nuclear p53 protein expression was higher than in cytoplasmatic fraction, and the difference was significant (P < 0.05). Higher nuclear p53 protein levels correlated with advanced histological grading of endometrioid endometrial carcinomas, but no relationship was noted between p53 protein expression and patients' age, clinical stage, histological type or depth of myometrial invasion. A case of uterine carcinosarcoma and a specimen of a botryoid sarcoma of the uterine cervix expressed nuclear p53 oncoprotein (57 IOD and 89 IOD, respectively). In conclusion, we found a statistically higher nuclear p53 levels in malignant as compared to normal human endometrial specimens by the Western blotting technique. Although there were no significant differences between p53 expression and clinicopathological features of the neoplasm (except poor histological grading), further studies are necessary to evaluate the influence of p53 nuclear/cytoplasmatic levels on the clinical outcome of Polish patients suffering from endometrial cancer.