Objective  To explore the expression of TNF-α and TNFR1 in cervix tissues with differentpathological types and their relationship with cervical squamous cell carcinoma(SCC).

Methods  RealtimeRT-PCR was performed to determine the mRNA levels of TNF-α, TNFR1, and TNFR2 in normal cervixgroup (n=48), cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) group (n=47) and SCC group (n=39). The protein levelsof TNFR1 and TNFR2 in cervical tissues were assessed by Western blot. Immunohistochemistry was used todetermine TNF-α expression in cervical tissues. The correlation of TNF-α and TNFR1 mRNA expression withcervical pathological types were also investigated.

Results  The mRNA levels of TNF-α and TNFR1 wereprogressively increased with the increasing grade of carcinoma (P<0.05), whereas the difference of TNFR2mRNA expression in the three groups was not statistically significant (P＞0.05). The expression of TNF-αwas also progressively increased with the increasing grade of carcinoma, and the proportion of positive cellsin normal cervix group, CIN group and SCC group were 6.25%, 58.82% and 71.79%, respectively (P<0.01).The protein level of TNFR1 was progressively increased with the increasing grade of carcinoma (P<0.01),whereas the TNFR2 expression was unchanged. Moreover, the positive correlations were found betweenTNF-α or TNFR1 mRNA levels in SCC group and tumor size, clinical stages, invasive depth, lymphaticmetastasis(P<0.05), instead of age and differentiation degree.

Conclusion  The activation of TNF-α andTNFR1 may play a critical role in the initiation and progression of cervical carcinoma by contributing to thechanges of cancer microenvironment, which are potential therapeutic targets of SCC.