[Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) immunolocalization in human nasal epithelium with chronic sinusitis...

This study examines the immunohistological localization of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in the nasal and paranasal sinus epithelium from a group of patients undergoing sinus surgery for chronic sinusitis. PCNA immunoreactivity as determined by fluorescence intensity and the density of labeled cells as assessed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The control group consisted of seven specimens taken from patients with post operative maxillary cyst and optic nerve canal fracture. In this group, most of the labeled cells were located on the basal cell layers with a few on the intermediate cell layers. The average labeled cell densities were 57.3 cells/mm2 on the basal cell layers and 15.9 cells/mm2 on the intermediate cell layer. The sinusitis group consisted of eleven patients. In contrast with the control group, the sinusitis epithelium displayed a significantly high proportion of goblet and intermediate cells positively stained for PCNA. The average densities were 84.9 cells/mm2 on the basal cell layers and 133.1 cells/mm2 on the intermediate cell layers in this group, the latter being nearly ten fold greater than that in the control group. Epithelial PCNA expression was correlated with the degree of inflammatory cell infiltration assessed by serial sections for each sample. A positive correlation was observed between these two factors (R = 0.63, Pearson). We believe that epithelial cell turnover is accelerated in chronic rhinosinusitis due to continuous exposure to various pathogens and host immune interventions. In those cases, goblet and intermediate cells would play the major role in enhanced epithelial proliferation.