Aberrant expression and constitutive activation of STAT3 in cervical carcinogenesis: implications in high-risk human papillomavirus infection

Table 2 Expression of STAT3 and phosphorylated STAT3 [pSTAT3(Y705) and pSTAT3(S727)] in HPV^- and HPV16⁺ precancer and cancer lesions of the uterine cervix as observed by immunoblotting¹

Target Protein	Normal (n = 20)		Precancer (n = 29)				Cancer (n = 63)				p value
	HPV^-(n = 20); (%)		HPV^-(n = 13); (%)		HPV16⁺(n = 16); (%)		HPV^-(n = 5); (%)		HPV16⁺(n = 58); (%)
Expression Level (→)	N(-)/W(+)	M(++)/S(+++)	N(-)/W(+)	M(++)/S(+++)	N(-)/W(+)	M(++)/S(+++)	N(-)/W(+)	M(++)/S(+++)	N(-)/W(+)	M(++)/S(+++)
STAT3	18 (90%)	2 (10%)	12 (92%)	1 (8%)	6 (37%)	10 (63%)	4 (80%)	1 (20%)	12 (21%)	46 (79%)	0.005^a, 0.01^b, 0.49^c, 0.19^d
pSTAT3 (Y705)	19 (95%)	1 (5%)	12 (92%)	1 (8%)	8 (50%)	8 (50%)	4 (80%)	1 (20%)	21 (36%)	37 (64%)	0.01^a 0.07^b 0.49^c 0.47^d
pSTAT3 (S727)	19 (95%)	1 (5%)	12 (92%)	1 (8%)	8 (50%)	8 (50%)	4 (80%)	1 (20%)	28 (48%)	30 (52%)	0.11^a 0.37^b 0.49^c 0.87^d

¹Arbitrary level of expression in immunoblotting: Strong (S) = (+++); Medium (M) = (++); Weak (W) = (+); Nil/not detectable (N) = (-). Values indicate the distribution of specimens in each category.
p value, probability from Fischer's Exact Test comparing the expression of proteins; ^a HPV^- vs HPV16⁺ precancer cases, ^b HPV^- vs HPV16⁺ cancer cases, ^c HPV^- Precancer vs HPV^- in cancer cases, ^d HPV16⁺ Precancer vs HPV16⁺ cancer cases.

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