Abstract: Objective: To explore the expression of CC chemokine receptor 6 (CCR6) in human adenoid cystic carcinoma tissue of salivary glands,and to clarify the mechanism of CCR6 in the nerve invasion of human adenoid cystic carcinoma. Methods: Immumohistochemical method(SP) was performed to detect the expression of CCR6 in 30 cases of cancer tissue of the patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma (including 18 cases in nerve invasion group and 12 cases in non-nerve invasion group) and 22 cases of normal salivary gland tissue. The relationship between the positive expression rate of CCR6 and the clinicopathological features of the patients were analyzed. Results: CCR6 was positively expressed in 22 cases among 30 cases of salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma tissue,and the positive expression rate was 73.33%.The immunohistochemical staining showed that CCR6 mainly expressed in the cell membrane and cytoplasm of cancer cells. All of the 22 cases of normal salivary gland tissue were negative to CCR6 expression;the difference of the positive expression rate of CCR6 between two groups was statistically significant(P<0.05). The positive expression rate in nerve invasion group and non-nerve invasion group were 94.44%(17/18) and 41.67%(5/12),respectively; there was statistically significant between two groups(P<0.05). The positive rates of CCR6 in the patients with salivary gland adenoid cystic carcinoma with different ages,sex and pathological types had no statistically significant differences(P>0.05). Conclusion: CCR6 plays an important role in the development of human salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma and is closely related to the nerve invasion.

Key words: immunohistochemisty, adenoid cystic carcinoma, CC chemokine receptor 6, nerve invasion