Background & objective: Basement membrane (BM) could regulate differentiation, proliferation, and polarity of esophageal epithelium, and its integrity is important for carcinogenesis. This study was to explore the effect of the BM changes induced by chronic inflammation on esophageal carcinogenesis and its possible mechanisms through investigating the relationship of BM changes and epithelial proliferation.
Methods: The morphologic changes of BM in 10 specimens of invasive esophageal carcinoma tissue and 200 specimens of carcinoma adjacent tissue were observed with periodic acide-chiff staining (PAS); the correlations of inflammation score and histological type of esophageal epithelia to BM changes were analyzed. Of preceding specimens, the expression of laminin (LN), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and Ki-67 in 51 cases with typical BM changes were detected by immunohistochemistry; the correlation of LN to epithelial proliferation was analyzed.
Results: Dotted loss, piece loss, zone loss, and fragment thickening were observed at BM of hyperplasia, dysplasia, in situ carcinoma, and invasive carcinoma of esophageal epithelia. BM changes were related with inflammation score in epithelia (rs=0.795, P<0.05). PCNA and Ki-67 were expressed highly in the epithelia with changed BM (P<0.01).
Conclusion: BM changes induced by chronic inflammation are correlated with aberrant proliferation of esophageal epithelia.