Expression characteristics and diagnostic value of DHCR24 protein in cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions

ZHANG Chi; DU Jingran; LIAO Dingzhun; ZHANG Changlin; YANG Zheng; LI Tian

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1006-5725.2025.17.020

Abstract：Objective To investigate the expression of Delta(24)-cholesteryl reductase(DHCR24)proteins in cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions(SILs)tissues and its value in different cervical lesion patho-logical diagnosis.Methods The expression of DHCR24,p16,and Ki-67 was quantitatively detected by immuno-histochemistry in 51 normal cervical tissues,44 LSILs,and 57 HSILs.The receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve was drawn to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of DHCR24,p16,and Ki-67 proteins in evaluating the degree of SILs.Results The expression levels of DHCR24,p16 and Ki-67 protein were positively correlated with the progression of SILs(P<0.05).ROC analysis showed that the immunohistochemistry score cutoff value for DHCR24 between normal cervical tissue and LSIL was 0.1145,and between LSIL and HSIL was 0.1969.The sensi-tivity of DHCR24 in diagnosing LSIL was 79.55%,higher than that for p16 and Ki-67,which was 15.91%and 18.08%(P<0.05).The area under the ROC curve(AUC)for distinguishing normal cervical tissue from LSIL using a combination of DHCR24 and p16 was 0.932(95%CI:0.878～0.986),higher than that for p16 and Ki-67 combined,which was 0.861(95%CI:0.785～0.936).The AUC for distinguishing LSIL from HSIL using a combi-nation of DHCR24 and p16 was0.971(95%CI:0.946～0.997),higher than that for p16 and Ki-67 combined,which was 0.870(95%CI:0.790～0.949).Conclusions Both DHCR24 and p16 protein expression levels can pro-vide reference for the grading of SILs,and their combination can improve the diagnostic efficiency.The cutoff value derived from the ROC curve plotted by DHCR24 immunohistochemical staining intensity can improve the sensitivity of LSIL diagnosis.