Background: The Fas receptor is known to be widely expressed in various tissues and FasL is highly expressed on cells of the immune system and also on cells of immune-privileged areas such as the eyes and brain. Ovarian cells are known to exhibit marked FasL immunoreactivity throughout follicular development; there may also be a relationship between Fas and FasL polymorphisms and the immune privileges of the epithelial ovarian cells.
Patients and methods: The study included 47 epithelial ovarian carcinoma patients and 41 healthy subjects. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction endonucleases were used to determine the polymorphic Fas and FasL genes.
Results: The FasL CC genotype was found to increase the risk of ovarian carcinoma and a protective effect of the GGCT genotype was observed.
Conclusion: Because of the expressional aspects of the FasL-844T --> C polymorphism, individuals carrying the FasL-844C allele would be expected to have higher FasL expression on tumour cells compared with those carrying the FasL-844T allele. People with such a genotype show a tendency to develop various tumours.