The Expression of SOCS and NF-ϰB p65 in Hypopharyngeal Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Hypopharyngeal carcinoma is one of the most common types of head and neck tumors. Suppressers of cytokine signalling (SOCS) family members are key regulators of cytokine homeostasis, they play important roles in the process of cell proliferation, differentiation, maturation and apoptosis, and participate in the occurrence and development of tumor. The abnormal activation of NF-ϰB is an important feature of the tumor. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among SOCS, NF-ϰB p65 and hypopharyngeal carcinoma development.C METHODS: We included 72 hypopharyngeal cancer patients and 9 swallow cyst patients. The patients were recruited at The Second Hospital of Shandong University (Jinan, China) between 2014 and 2016. The mRNA and protein expression levels of SOCS-1, SOCS-3 and NF-ϰB p65 in hypopharyngeal carcinoma tissues, para-cancerous tissues and control tissues were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, respectively. RESULTS: Hypopharyngeal carcinoma tissues had lower level expression of SOCS-1 and SOCS-3 than pericarcinoma tissues, but there was no significant difference, while cancer tissues had significantly higher level expression of NF-ϰB p65 than that of pericarcinoma tissues (0.412±0.266, 0.281±0.231, t=2.969, P=0.004). The early stage patients had striking higher level expression of SOCS-1 and SOCS-3 than that in advanced stages (F=16.202, P<0.001; F=52.295, P<0.001), while the expression of NF-ϰB p65 in early stages had lower level than that in advanced stages (F=3.383, P=0.04). CONCLUSION: SOCS-1, SOCS-3 may be protective factors while NF-ϰB p65 could be a harmful factor in hypopharyngeal carcinoma.