Apoptosis and its relationship with cell proliferation, p53, Waf1p21, bcl-2 and c-myc in esophageal carcinogenesis studied with a high-risk population in northern China

Table 3 Apoptotic indexes in samples with positive and negative immunoreactivity for p53, bcl-2 and c-myc in esophageal epithelia with different severities of lesions

Histology	p53 immunostaining				bcl-2 immunostaining				c-myc immunostaining
	Positive		Negative		Positive		Negative		Positive		Negative
	Na	AIb	N	AI	N	AI	N	AI	N	AI	N	AI
Normal	23	0.4 ± 0.8	8	0.2 ± 0.4	0	0	23	0.2 ± 0.6	4	0.6 ± 1.2	27	0.3 ± 0.6
BCH	102	0.4 ± 0.8	15	0.3 ± 0.6	5	0.1 ± 0.3	26	0.5 ± 1.1	15	0.8 ± 1.1	46	0.5 ± 1.1
DYS	31	1.8 ± 1.5	0		4	1.7 ± 1.3	6	1.9 ± 0.4	7	2.0 ± 1.7	6	0.7 ± 0.7
SCC	23	2.3 ± 2.1	3	1.1 ± 0.4	6	2.0 ± 0.9	1	2.8	16	2.2 ± 2.2	11	2.0 ± 1.8

^aN, Number of samples examined.

^bAI, apoptotic index, i.e., the number of apoptotic cells and apoptotic bodies per mm².