Abstract
BackgroundOral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most relevant malignant neoplasm among all head and neck tumours due to its high prevalence and unfavourable prognosis. Tumour invasion and metastasis that affect prognosis are result of a set of complex events that cells with invasive potential use to spread to other regions. These cells use several mechanisms to invade tissues, including a type of finger-like membrane protrusion called invadopodia. This study aims to investigate the immunoexpression of invaopodia related-proteins TKs5, cortactin, TKs4 and MT1-MMP in OSCC and correlate it to clinicopathological data.MethodsAn immunohistochemical evaluation of fifty cases of OSCCs and 20 cases of oral mucosa (OM) were assessed. The expression of invadopodia proteins were analysed in comparison to normal tissue (OM) and correlated to different clinical-stage and histological grade of OSCC.ResultsTKs5, cortactin, TKs4 and MT1-MMP were significantly overexpressed in OSCC when compared to OM (p < 0.0001). Among tumour stages, TKs5 showed a statistical difference in immunolabelling between stage I and III (p = 0.026). Cortactin immunolabelling was statistically higher in grade I than in grade II and III. No differences were seen on TKs4 expression based on tumour staging or grading. MT1-MMP was higher expressed and showed statistical difference between stages I and III and grades I compared to II and III.ConclusionsThe invadopodia related-proteins were found to be overexpressed in OSCC when compared to OM, suggesting invadopodia formation and activity. Besides overexpressed in OSCC, cortactin, TKs4 and TKs5 showed no or ambiguous differences in protein expression when compared among clinical-stages or histological grades groups. Conversely, the expression of MT1-MMP increased in advanced stages and less differentiated tumours, suggesting MT1-MMP expression as a promising prognostic marker in OSCC.
Highlights
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most relevant malignant neoplasm among all head and neck tumours due to its high prevalence and unfavourable prognosis
Our results showed overexpression of invadopodia proteins in OSCC in comparison with oral mucosa (OM), suggesting the invadopodia is active in OSCC and may be behind of the unfavourable prognosis observed in this tumour [24]
Cortactin was overexpressed in OSCC compared to OM, we found no correlation between clinical stage and a higher expression in well differentiated tumours (GI) than in GII and GIII
Summary
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most relevant malignant neoplasm among all head and neck tumours due to its high prevalence and unfavourable prognosis. Tumour invasion and metastasis that affect prognosis are result of a set of complex events that cells with invasive potential use to spread to other regions. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most relevant tumour in the head and neck region to its high prevalence and aggressiveness [1, 2]. Aggressive tumours have high invasive capacity, which is related to phenotypic alterations between neoplastic cells and surrounding microenvironment. This altered cell behaviour modulates tumour invasion by triggering cell invasion pathways that often result in increased degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) [4, 5]
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