Original scientific paper
The significance of FHIT and Bcl-2 in patients with oral lichen planus in comparison to the healthy oral mucosa and oral squamous cell cancer
Ivana Pavić
; Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital Center, Zagreb, Croatia
Drinko Baličević
; Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital Center, Zagreb, Croatia
Borna Vrdoljak
; School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Maja Milenović
; School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Josip Zekić
orcid.org/0000-0003-1651-8069
; Children's Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia
Vanja Vučićević Boras
; School of Dental Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Background: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a precancerous lesion which might progress into oral squamous cell cancer (OSCC) in 0-1.2 % of the affected patients. Albeit there are many published studies upon this topic, there are no universally accepted clinical and histopathological criteria which would suggest which patients will develop OSCC. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare epithelial and sub epithelial FHIT and Bcl-2 expression between patients with OLP, OSCC and healthy oral mucosa.Materials and Methods: Fifty patients with OLP, 20 with OSCC who had histologically confi rmed diagnoses and 20 healthy controls were included in this study. Immuno-histochemical analysis was performed on primary monoclonal antibodies Bcl-2 (Dako, Finland) and FHIT (Zymed Laboratories Inc., USA) were used. Statistical analysis included Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test, χ2 test and Spearman’s correlation. All p values lower than p<0.05 were considered as significant. Results: Expression of FHIT in the OLP and OSCC epithelium is significantly decreased when compared to the healthy oral mucosa. However, no significant differences between FHIT expression between OLP and OSCC could be found.
OLP and OSCC patients have signifi cantly increased expression values of Bcl-2 in the epithelium when compared to the epithelium of healthy participants. Furthermore, Bcl-2 expression is significantly increased in patients with OLP when compared to the patients with OSCC. Subepithelial infiltrate in OLP and OSCC reveals signifi cantly higher Bcl 2 expression when compared to the healthy controls. However, Bcl-2 expression in the infl ammatory infi ltrate is signifi cantly higher in OSCC patients when compared to the OLP patients. Conclusion: Loss of FHIT expression in the epithelium is not suffi cient for malignant transformation in OLP patients. It seems that other molecular changes are needed for OLP progression into OSCC. Bcl-2 expression in the infl ammatory infi ltrate is signifi cantly higher in OSCC patients when compared to the OLP patients and healthy controls, however bcl-2 expression in the epithelium does not correlate with precancerous (OLP) and OSCC lesions.
Keywords
oral lichen planus; oral squamous cell cancer; FHIT; Bcl-2
Hrčak ID:
184443
URI
Publication date:
3.7.2017.
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