Immunohistochemical Expression of SIRT1 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and its Relationship with Clinical-Pathological Factors

Abstract

Objective: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common oral cancer in the world that threatens public health. There are a number of molecular markers that can be used to improve TNM staging. One of these markers is SIRT1. We aimed to investigate the expression of SIRT1 in OSCC and its relationship with clinicopathological factors such as age, sex, location of tumor, smoking, clinical stage, grade of tumor, metastasis to lymph nodes in the neck and distant metastasis. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 30 samples of OSCC and 30 samples of normal oral mucosa. Required clinical data were collected from patients. After immunohistochemistry staining for SIRT1 on sections prepared with paraffin blocks, the percentage of stained cells and staining intensity of the cells were evaluated in the terms of core and cytoplasmic aspects. Results: Positive expression of SIRT1 was seen in 93.3% and 96.7% of cells in the core and cytoplasm view, respectively, which was significantly higher than normal tissue (P=0.021 and 0.001, respectively). We found no significant relationship between the intensity and percentage of core and cytoplasmic staining of squamous cells as well as clinicopathological factors. Conclusion: The overexpression of SIRT1 in OSCC samples as compared with normal mouth tissue indicates its role in carcinogenesis. However, further studies on SIRT1 may shed more light on the treatment options of OSCC.