中文摘要：

目的研究β-连环蛋白（β-catenin）在鼻咽癌（nasopharyngeal carcinoma,NPC）癌变过程中的作用。方法免疫组化结合组织微阵列检测β-catenin蛋白在174例NPC、71例异型增生鼻咽黏膜上皮、48例单纯增生鼻咽黏膜上皮及63例正常鼻咽黏膜上皮组织中的阳性表达及其阳性信号的定位。结果β-catenin在NPC组织细胞浆/细胞核中高表达（71.3%）,但其细胞膜呈低阳性表达（19.0%）;β-catenin在NPC组织中的细胞浆/细胞核阳性表达率显著高于异型增生鼻咽黏膜上皮、增生鼻咽黏膜上皮和正常鼻咽黏膜上皮（P〈0.01）。非角化性鼻咽癌和未分化癌组织的β-catenin蛋白细胞浆/细胞核异常阳性表达率显著高于角化性鼻咽癌（P〈0.01）。临床Ⅲ和Ⅳ期NPC组织中β-catenin蛋白的细胞浆/细胞核阳性表达率显著高于临床Ⅰ和Ⅱ期（P〈0.01）,有淋巴结转移的NPC组织中β-catenin蛋白的细胞浆/细胞核阳性表达率显著高于无淋巴结转移NPC（P〈0.01）。结论β-catenin蛋白在癌细胞细胞浆/细胞核中的过表达在NPC发生、发展过程中起重要作用;β-catenin蛋白细胞浆/细胞核阳性可作为预测鼻咽癌临床进展和侵袭、转移的分子标志。

英文摘要：

Objective To study the role of β-catenin protein in the carcinogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma（NPC）.Methods Immunohistochemical method combined with tissue microarrays were used for detecting the expression and localization of β-catenin protein in nasopharyngeal tissue with different pathological morphology.Results Low positive percentage of of β-catenin protein expression in cell membrane of NPC（19.0%） and high expression of β-catenin protein in the cytoplasm/ nucleus of NPC（71.3%） were detected.The aberrant positive percentage of cytoplasm/ nucleus of β-catenin expression in the NPC was significantly higher than those in atypically hyperplastic nasopharyngeal epithelium（P0.01）,simply hyperplastic nasopharyngeal epithelium（P0.01） and normal nasopharyngeal epitheliun（P0.01）,respetively.Expression of β-catenin protein in the cytoplasm/nucleus of keratinizing nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma was significantly lower than that in the undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma and no keratinizing nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma（P0.01）.The aberrant expression of cytoplasm/ nucleus of β-catenin protein in clinical Ⅲ and Ⅳ-staged NPC and NPC with lymph node metastasis was evidently higher than that in Ⅰ and Ⅱ-staged NPC（P0.01） and that without lymph node metastasis（P0.01）.Conclusion The aberrant expression of β-catenin protein in the cytoplasm/nucleus of NPC maybe play an important role in the carcinogenesis,invasion,metastasis and development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.The cytoplasm/nucleus positive expression of β-catenin might be used as a molecular marker to predict clinical progress and invasive metastasis of NPC.