Expression of CHOP in squamous tumor of the uterine cervix

High-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection and abnormal p53 expression are closely involved in carcinogenesis of squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) of uterine cervix. Recent studies have suggested that virus-induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress modulates various cell survival and cell death signaling pathways. The C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) is associated with ER stress-mediated apoptosis and is also involved in carcinogenesis of several human cancers. We hypothesized that CHOP is involved in the carcinogenesis of uterine cervical cancer in association with HR-HPV and/or p53.

Immunohistochemistry was used to analyze CHOP and p53 protein expression of tissue sections from 191 patients with invasive cancer or preinvasive lesions of the uterine cervix (61 cases of SqCC, 66 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia [CIN] III, and 64 cases of CIN I).

CHOP was expressed in 59.4% of CIN I, 48.5% of CIN III, and 70.5% of SqCC cases. It was also significantly more frequent in invasive SqCC than in preinvasive lesions (p=0.042). Moreover, CHOP expression significantly correlated with HR-HPV infection and p53 expression (p=0.009 and p=0.038, respectively).

Our results suggest that CHOP is involved in the carcinogenesis of the uterine cervix SqCC via association with HR-HPV and p53.