Altered β-catenin expression in oral mucosal dysplasia: a comparative study

• Main Authors: Brunno Santos de Freitas SILVA (Author), Caroline Alves de CASTRO (Author), Sandra Lúcia Ventorin VON ZEIDLER (Author), Suzana Cantanhede Orsini Machado de SOUSA (Author), Aline Carvalho BATISTA (Author), Fernanda Paula YAMAMOTO-SILVA (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: University of São Paulo, 2015-10-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

Objective The current study aimed to investigate the β-catenin expression in oral leukoplakia (OL) with different degrees of epithelial dysplasia and normal oral mucosa.Material and Methods Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples of 39 OL (mild dysplasia n=19, moderate dysplasia n=13, and severe dysplasia n=7), and 10 normal oral mucosa (control group) were submitted to immunohistochemical reactions to anti-β-catenin primary antibody. A qualitative β-catenin analysis was performed based on the percentage of positive cells. The cellular location and the epithelial layer were also considered. The Chi-square test and the Fisher's exact test were used to verify possible differences in the β-catenin expression among the OL groups. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results Membranous expression of β-catenin in parabasal and basal layers was gradually lost in the higher degrees of epithelial dysplasia. In normal oral mucosa, β-catenin was detected only in the cytoplasmic membrane. However, a significant increase in cytoplasmic β-catenin could be observed between mild and moderate dysplasia (Fisher Exact test - p<0.001) and between mild and severe dysplasia (p<0.001).Conclusions The β-catenin cytoplasmic expression observed in this study may represent the initial stage of modifications in the E-cadherin-catenin complex, along with morphological cellular changes.

Item Description

1678-7765
10.1590/1678-775720150150