Background: The major proteoglycan of normal human larynx is aggrecan. In laryngeal carcinoma, aggrecan is depleted, with versican and decorin appearing in higher amounts.
Materials and methods: Proteoglycans in laryngeal carcinoma samples were characterized immunohistochemically and using Western blotting; their expression was examined by RT-PCR.
Results: Aggrecan was totally removed in advanced cancer and its RT-PCR product was not identified. Both versican and decorin were overexpressed in cancer, versican much more than decorin. Decorin expression was higher than that of versican in the normal larynx; therefore, their disproportionate overexpression during cancer resulted in about equimolar expression. Both proteoglycans' expression correlated with their stage-related accumulation within the tissue.
Conclusion: These data add to our previous findings and support the view that the levels of expression and the extent of accumulation and localization in the tumor stroma of structurally modified versican and decorin could be associated with the degree of aggressiveness of laryngeal carcinoma.