0.05).There were significant differences in the expression of p16 proteins in cervical cancers (97.50%) compared to the expression of those in normal cervical tissues (2.94%) both in Urghur and Han nationalities (P0.05).Furthermore,there was a positive correlation between the expression of p16 and infection of HPV16 (r=0.603,P

Purpose To study the expression of Galectin-7 in squamous carcinoma of the cervix and its correlation with HPV 16 infec-tion in Uyghur and Han women. Methods The expression of Galectin-7 in paraffin-embedded cervical tissues collected from Uyghur women including 21 patients with cervicitis and 49 patients with squamous carcinoma of the cervix and Han women including 25 patients with cervicitis and 29 patients with squamous cervical cancer was evaluated by immunohistochemical SP method. The infection of HPV 16 was evaluated by PCR amplification of HPV DNA from the corresponding cervical tissue samples. The expression of levels of Galec-tin-7 in cervical tissues was analyzed according to the corresponding integrated optical density ( IOD) value of Galectin-7 in cervical le-sions with professional image analysis software Image-Pro Plus (IPP) 6. 0. Results PCR detection of HPV 16 in Uyghur patients from Kashghar showed that 20 patients were positive and 29 cases were negative for HPV 16 in squamous cervical cancer patients whereas in patients with cervicitis, only 5 cases were positive, 16 cases were negative for HPV 16. Furthermore the detection of HPV 16 in Han patients showed that 2 cases were positive and 27 cases was negative in patients with squamous cervical cancer patients, and all the ca-ses were negative for HPV 16 in patients with cervicitis. The expression of Galectin-7 in squamous cervical cancer tissues was signifi-cantly lower than that in the cervicitis patients (P<0. 05). The expression of Galectin-7 in HPV 16 positive squamous cervical cancer patients was significantly lower than that in HPV 16 negative patients ( P<0. 05 ) . There was no obvious correlation between the ex-pression levels of Galectin-7 in squamous cervical cancer patients with the differentiation degree and disease oneset age both in Uyghur and Han patients. Conclusion Compared with cervicitis tissues, Galectin-7 expression in squamous cervical cancer is down-regulated in Uyghur women from Kashghar region implying that the expression of Galectin-7 may play a certain role in the occurrence and develop-ment of squamous cervical cancer, and its detection has a certain reference value for the diagnosis of cervical cancer for Uyghur women.