Comparison of apoptosis and apoptosis-related gene products between extranodal oral B-cell lymphoma and maxillofacial nodal B-cell lymphoma.

Abstract

Twenty-seven cases of primary extranodal oral B-cell lymphoma and 22 cases of primary maxillofacial nodal B-cell lymphoma were investigated for the presence of apoptotic cells and the expression of apoptosis-related gene products by terminal deoxynucleotidyl-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) and immunohistochemistry. The majority of extranodal oral diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (17/25, 68%) and maxillofacial nodal diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (14/16, 88%) contained no or less than 10% apoptotic cells. Whereas the majority of extranodal oral diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (18/25, 72%) and maxillofacial nodal diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (13/16, 81%) contained more than 10% of Ki-67-positive cells. Bcl-2-, Bax-, p53- and Ki-67-positive rates were higher in maxillofacial nodal diffuse large B-cell lymphomas than in extranodal oral diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, but only Bax (chi2 test, 0.01<P<0.025) and p53 (chi2 test, 0.005<P<0.01) had significant differences. Extranodal oral diffuse large B-cell lymphomas had a higher frequency of TUNEL expression than maxillofacial nodal diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. In maxillofacial nodal diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, stage III and stage IV tumors had a significantly higher frequency of Bcl-2 expression than stage I and stage II tumors (Fisher's exact test, P<0.01). These findings indicated that in the majority of both extranodal oral and maxillofacial nodal diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, apoptosis was inhibited - whereas proliferative activity was accelerated. Impairment of apoptosis and apoptotic related gene products may have a more important relation to maxillofacial nodal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma than extranodal oral diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.