E-cadherin, β-catenin, and α2β1 and α3β1 integrin expression in primary oral squamous cell carcinoma and its regional metastasis
Mariana Quirino Silveira Soares1, Juliana Andrade Mendonça2, Marília Oliveira Morais1, Claudio Rodrigues Leles3, Aline Carvalho Batista4 and Elismauro Francisco Mendonça4
1Dental School, 2Medical School, 3Department of Restorative Dentistry, Dental School and 4Department of Stomatology (Oral Pathology and Radiology), Dental School, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil
Offprint requests to: Elismauro Francisco Mendonça, Disciplina de Patologia Geral e Bucal, Faculdade de Odontologia, Universidade Federal de Goiás
Praça Universitária S/N, Setor Universitário CEP: 74605-220, Goiânia, Brazil. e-mail: elismaur@ufg.br
Summary. To investigate E-cadherin, β-catenin, and α2β1 and α3β1 integrins in 40 samples of non-metastatic and metastatic oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) with positive cervical lymph nodes (LN). Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate expression in the lesion center (LC) and invasive tumor front (ITF) of non-metastatic (n=18) and metastatic (n=22) OSCC and in the LN on the metastatic neoplastic cells (MNC; n=22). In metastatic OSCC, E-cadherin and β-catenin presented significantly lower cytoplasmic membrane expression in the ITF and MNC when compared to the LC and lower cytoplasmic expression in MNC when compared to the LC and ITF (p<0.05). Integrins α2β1 and α3β1 showed high cytoplasmic expression in the LC, ITF and MNC (p>0.05). A positive correlation was observed between E-cadherin cytoplasmic expression and α2β1 (p=0.860) and α3β1 (p=0.975) expression. When comparing the primary sites of metastatic and non-metastatic disease, β-catenin presented lower cytoplasmic membrane (p=0.013) expression in metastatic OSCC. E-cadherin presented low expression and the integrins high expression in both groups. Abnormal expression of β-catenin and E-cadherin associated with high expression of α2β1 and α3β1 integrins contribute to LN metastasis in OSCC. Histol Histopathol 30, 1213-1222 (2015)
Key words: Oral cancer, Squamous cell carcinoma, Cell adhesion, Lymphatic metastasis
DOI: 10.14670/HH-11-616