PP109: Mast cells are not related with vascular microdensity and angiogenesis in epithelial dysplasia and oral squamous cell carcinomas

Abstract

Purpose Malignant tumors located in oral cavity represent 5% of all human cancers and oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) correspond to 90% of these cases. Oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) has a biological potential to progress to OSCC. The mast cells are well known for stimulating and maintaining the vascular network formation. These cells release factors that stimulate angiogenesis such as VEGF-A. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the distribution of mast cell and angiogenesis in OED and OSCC. Material and methods Fourteen OED and 56 OSCC were immunostained for the proteins CD34, VEGF-A, and mast cell tryptase using Envision Advance™ System. Mast cells density (MD-cell/mm 2 ), and the vascular microdensity (VMD-vessel/mm 2 ) were determined by counting the number of cells and positive vessels for CD34, respectively, in five hot spot areas. The expression of VEGF-A was evaluated according to immunohistochemical score (Sinicrope et al., 1995). All studied proteins were associated with clinical parameters and histological grade of OED and OSCC. Results MD, VMD and VEGF-A expression were not associated with clinical parameters and histological grades in OED, and OSCC. The MD and VMD were significantly higher between cases of OED than OSCC ( p = 0.01, and p = 0.0003, respectively). In OED, there were no association between MD, VMD, and VEGF-A expression. In OSCC, VEGF-A expression was positively associated with VMD ( r = 0.39, p = 0.0299). Conclusion In our study, mast cells seem do not contribute to blood vessels density and VEGF-A expression in OED and OSCC.