To investigate the expression of furin in normal cervical tissues and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) tissues, and to explore its relationship with the clinical pathological stages of CIN.

A total of 68 cases of CIN patients who were diagnosed by cervical biopsy guided by colposcopy in the Department of Gynecology, Tangshan Maternal and Child Health Hospital from July 2015 to July 2016 were selected as CIN group. And 20 cases who were diagnosed as normal cervix by cervical biopsy guided by colposcopy in the same hospital during the same period due to atypical squamous cells in the cervical liquid based cytology examination were included into control group. Cervical tissue specimens of two groups were collected, and the relative expression levels of furin mRNA were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR, and the relative expression levels of furin were detected by Western blotting method. The relative expression levels of furin mRNA and furin, and the positive expressions rate of furin in two groups were compared by statistical methods. The following procedures were in line with the standards set by the Ethics Committee of Tangshan Maternal and Child Health Hospital and approved by the committee. All subjects in the clinical study signed the informed consents. There were no statistically significant differences between two groups in the age and other general clinical data (P>0.05).

①The relative expression level of furin mRNA in the cervical tissue of CIN group was 1.59±0.74, which was statistically significant higher than that of 0.63±0.08 in control group, and the difference was statistically significant (t=2.51, P=0.004). ②The relative expression level of furin in the cervical tissue of CIN group was 1.29±0.54, which was statistically significant higher than that of 0.15±0.04 in control group, and the difference was statistically significant (t=2.09, P=0.015). ③In CIN group, the positive expression rate of furin was 63.2% (43/68), which was significantly higher than that of 15.0% (3/20) in control group, and the difference was statistically significant (χ²=14.41, P<0.001). In CIN1-3 cervical tissues of CIN group and normal cervical tissues of control group, positive expression rate of furin was 31.6% (6/19), 65.2% (15/23), 84.6% (22/26), 15.0% (3/20), respectively, the positive expression rate of furin increased with the increasing clinical pathological stage of CIN, and the difference was statistically significant (χ²=26.56, P=0.003).

Furin may participates in the occurrence and development of CIN, and high level of furin expression may be an early indicator of CIN. Furin is expected to be a molecular marker for early prediction of CIN.