Immunohistochemical nuclear expression of p27 protein in oral epithelial dysplasia and oral squamous cell carcinoma
Namrata Gulati, A. Einstein, Himanta Ghritlahare, Swatantra Patel, G. S. Gulati, Shubhangi D. MishraAbstract
Background:
Evaluation of the expression of tumour suppressor genes is expected to help in the early diagnosis of fatal malignancies, at the very onset of dysplasia. The immunoexpression of p27 protein, however, has been debated as to whether it falls only after the onset of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), or falls even in the premalignant phase or dysplasia. We therefore compared the immunoexpression of p27 in oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) and OSCC.
Materials and Methods:
A total of 90 tissue samples retrieved from the departmental archives were divided into three groups according to the histopathological confirmation of normal oral mucosa (NOM), OED, and OSCC. The mean percentage of positive cells in each of the groups was evaluated and compared statistically.
Results:
Of all the tissues of OED and OSCC, 10% of the OED tissues and 20% of the OSCC tissues lacked p27 nuclear immunoexpression. Further, there was a significant difference in the nuclear immunoexpression of p27 among all the three groups, with least percentage of immunopositive cells seen in the OSCC tissues. Furthermore, the p27 immunoexpression in OED tissues was significantly lower than that in the tissues of NOM.
Conclusion:
The p27 nuclear immunoexpression starts significantly reducing during the dysplastic alterations of tissues and not only after the onset of OSCC. The cytoplasmic patterns of expression of the protein need to be further evaluated.