Korean J Dermatol.  1997 Apr;35(2):242-248.

Immunohistochemical Study of bcl - 2 Expression in Basal Cell Carcinoma

• Lee SY
• Choi KC

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Basal cell carcinoma(BCC) is the most common tumor of light-skinned people. Most of them are relatively innocuous, but some may cause extensive tissue destruction, and result in death by local infiltration of vital structure or metastatic disease. The bcl-2 is a protooncogene involved in tumorigenesis by blocking apoptosis or programmed cell death.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether there was a difference in bcl-2 expression in different histopathological types of BCC. Method: We performed immunohistochemical staining by using a monoclonal mouse anti-human bcl-2 oncoprotein in 28 BCC(nodular: 7 cases, micronodular; 3 cases, adenoid; 1 case, infiltrative; 9 cases, and mixed; 8 cases). Result: All 28 BCC expressed bcl-2, and the degree of staining was different according to histopathological types; poor prognostic micronodular(100%) and infiltrative(73.3%) types were relatively strong, and nodular(66.7% ) and adenoid(75.0%) types were moderate.
Conclusion
. These results suggest that the degree of bcl-2 expression in BCC seems to be dependent to the histopathological types together with clinical behavior.

Keyword

Basal cell carcinoma, bcl-2

MeSH Terms

Adenoids
Animals
Apoptosis
Carcinogenesis
Carcinoma, Basal Cell*
Cell Death
Mice