Annexin subcellular expression in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

A49 Annexin 1 is a soluble cytoplasmic protein, moving to membranes when calcium levels are elevated. Annexin 1 is also shown to move to nucleus or outside the cells, depending on tysosine-kinase signaling, thus interfering in cytoskeletal organization, ion fluxes and cell differentiation, mostly in inflammatory and neoplastic processes. In the present study, Sequencing Analysis of Gene Expression experiments detected a reduced expression of ANXA1 gene in laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas as compared to the corresponding non-neoplastic margins. Real time polymerase chain reaction confirmed ANXA1 low expression in another random subset of 15 larynx squamous cell carcinomas and 8 matched normal samples. Based on these data, we investigated subcellular patterns of immunohistochemical expression of annexin 1 in 259 paraffin-embedded samples from 95 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas, including non-tumoral, dysplastic, primary tumoral and lymphnode metastases areas, searching for evidences for the role of annexin 1 in laryngeal carcinogenesis. The results showed annexin 1 down-regulation in dysplastic, tumoral and metastatic lesions and provided preliminary evidence for the progressive migration of annexin 1 from the nucleus towards the membrane along the sequence of laryngeal carcinogenesis. Since this dysregulation was observed very early in carcinogenesis, already in intra-epithelial neoplasms, it was not found related to prognostic markers, such as nodal metastases.